Lights  and  Shadows 

in 

Confederate  Prisons 
1864-5 


mi! 


Portraits  of  Fellow  Officers  in  Prison 

Left  to  right— Top  line:  Capt.  Cook,  Capt.  Burrage 

Middle  line:  Adj't.  Gardiner,  Col.  Sprague,  Capt.  Howe 

Lower  line:  Lieut.  Estabrooks,  Adj't  Putnam 


"  Forsan  et  haec  olim  meminisse  juvabit" 

Lights   and   Shadows    in 
Confederate   Prisons 

A  Personal  Experience 
1864-5 


By 
Homer  B.  Sprague,  Ph.D. 

Bvt.-Colonel  13th  Conn.  Vols. 

Sometime  Professor  in  Cornell  and  President  of  the  University 

of  North  Dakota 

Author  of    "History  of  the  13th  Conn.  Inf.    Vols.,"  "Right 

and    Wrong    in    our     War     between    the    States,"     and 

"The  European  War,  Its  Cause  and  Cure" 


With,  Portraits 


G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York  and  London 

Gbe   fmfcfcerbocfcet    press 

1915 


.5*1 


COPYRIGHT,   1915 

BY 
HOMER    B.    SPRAGUE 


Ube  ftnfcfccrbocfcer  iprcsg,  f*ew  H?orfe 


Co 

THE   ALUMNI   OF 

THE  UNIVERSITIES  OF 
YALE,  CORNELL,  AND  NORTH   DAKOTA 

IN    WHICH   RESPECTIVELY   THE   AUTHOR    WAS 
STUDENT,    PROFESSOR,    PRESIDENT  J 

TO 

THOUSANDS   OF    HIS    PUPILS   YET   LIVING; 
TO 

HIS  COMPANIONS  OF  THE  LOYAL  LEGION, 

COMRADES  OF  THE  GRAND  ARMY  OF  THE  REPUBLIC, 

ALL  SURVIVING  OFFICERS  AND  SOLDIERS 

UNION  OR  CONFEDERATE; 
ALL  WHO  CHERISH  THE  MEMORY  OF  THE  PATRIOT  DEAD 

AND   ALL    WHO   HATE   WAR, 

THIS    RECORD   IS    AFFECTIONATELY 

DEDICATED 


PREFACE 

THIS  narrative  of  prison  life  differs  from  all 
others  that  I  have  seen,  in  that  it  is  careful  to  put 
the  best  possible  construction  upon  the  treat 
ment  of  Union  prisoners  by  the  Confederates,  and 
to  state  and  emphasize  kindnesses  and  courtesies 
received  by  us  from  them. 

For  the  accuracy  of  the  facts  stated  I  am 
indebted  to  a  diary  kept  from  day  to  day  during 
the  whole  of  my  imprisonment,  and  to  the  best 
obtainable  records.  The  exact  language  of  conver 
sations  cannot  of  course  always  be  remembered, 
but  I  aim  always  to  give  correctly  the  substance. 

I  am  aware  that  the  opinions  I  express  in  regard 
to  Sheridan's  strategy  at  the  Battle  of  Winchester 
are  not  those  generally  entertained.  But  I  give 
reasons.  His  own  account  of  the  battle  is  sadly 
imperfect.  To  capture  but  five  guns  and  nine 
battle  flags  at  a  cost  of  four  thousand  six  hundred 
and  eighty  killed  and  wounded,  and  leave  almost 
the  entire  rebel  army  in  shape  to  fight  two  great 
battles  within  a  month,  was  not  the  programme 
he  had  planned.  Early  said  "Sheridan  should 
have  been  cashiered. " 


vi  Preface 

I  shall  be  blamed  more  for  venturing  to  question 
Lincoln's  policy  of  subjugation.  He  had  pro 
claimed  with  great  power  and  in  the  most  unmis 
takable  language  in  Congress  that  ' '  any  portion  of 
any  people  had  a  perfect  right  to  throw  off  their 
old  government  and  establish  a  new  one. "  But 
now,  instead  of  standing  strictly  on  the  defens 
ive,  or  attempting  by  diplomacy  to  settle  the 
conflict  which  had  become  virtually  international, 
he  entered  upon  a  war  of  conquest. 

I  do  not  blame  him  for  refusing  to  exchange 
prisoners,  nor  President  Davis  for  allowing  them  to 
starve  and  freeze.  Both  were  right,  if  war  is  right. 
It  was  expedient  that  thirty,  fifty,  or  a  hundred 
thousand  of  us  should  perish,  or  be  rendered 
physically  incapable  of  bearing  arms  again.  The 
"deep  damnation  of  the  taking  off"  was  due  not 
to  individual  depravity  but  to  military  necessity. 

H.  B.  S. 

BRIGHTON,  MASS.,  U.  S.  A., 
19*5- 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

PREFACE       v 

CHAPTER  I 

The  First,  or  Forenoon,  Battle  of  Winchester,  Indecisive — 

Sheridan's  and  Early 's  Mistakes — The  Capture  .          .          I 

CHAPTER  II 

At  Winchester — On  the  Road  thence  to  Tom's  Brook,  New 

Market,  and  Staunton      .  17 

CHAPTER  III 

At  Staunton — Thence  to  Waynesboro,   Meacham's,   and 

Richmond       ........       32 

CHAPTER  IV 

At  Libby — Thence  to  Clover,  Danville,  Greensboro,  and 

Salisbury — Effort  to  Pledge  us  not  to  Attempt  Escape  .        43 

CHAPTER  V 
At  Salisbury — Great  Plot  to  Escape — How  Frustrated         .       60 

CHAPTER  VI 

From    Salisbury    to    Danville — The    Forlorn    Situation — 
Effort  to  "Extract  Sunshine  from  Cucumbers" — The 
Vermin — The    Prison    Commandant    a    Yale    Man — 
Proposed    Theatricals — Rules    Adopted — Studies — 
Vote  in  Prison  for  Lincoln  and  McClellan — Killing 

Time 77 

vii 


viii  Contents 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  VII 

Exact  Record  of  Rations  in  Danville — Opportunity  to  Cook 
— Daily  Routine  of  Proceedings  from  Early  Dawn  till 
Late  at  Night.  .......  93 

CHAPTER  VIII 

Continual  Hope  of  Exchange  of  Prisoners — "  Flag-of -Truce 
Fever!" — Attempted  Escape  by  Tunneling — Repeated 
Escapes  by  Members  of  Water  Parties,  and  how  we 
Made  the  Roll-Call  Sergeant's  Count  Come  Out  all 
Right  every  Time — Plot  to  Break  Out  by  Violence, 
and  its  Tragic  End  .  .  .  .  .  .  .106 

CHAPTER  IX 

Kind  Clergymen  Visit  us  and  Preach  Excellent  Discourses — 
Colonel  Smith's  Personal  Good  Will  to  me— His  Offer- 
John  F.  Ficklin's  Charity — My  Good  Fortune — 
Supplies  of  Clothing  Distributed — Deaths  in  Prison  .  120 

CHAPTER  X 

Results  and  Reflections— The  Right  and  the  Wrong  of  it  All      1 38 

APPENDIX 153 

INDEX  157 


Lights  and  Shadows  in  Confederate 
Prisons 


Lights    and    Shadows    in 
Confederate    Prisons 


CHAPTER  I 

The   First,   or   Forenoon,    Battle   of   Winchester,    indecisive — 
Sheridan's  and  Early 's  Mistakes — The  Capture. 

"WAR  is  HELL,"  said  our  great  strategist, 
General  W.  T.  Sherman.  According  to  its  latest 
code,  with  few  or  no  exceptions,  the  end  justifies 
the  means,  and,  if  necessary  to  success,  it  is  right 
to  do  wrong. 

Fifty  years  ago  one  of  the  fairest  regions  on 
earth  was  that  portion  of  Virginia  extending  south 
westerly  about  a  hundred  and  twenty  miles  from 
Harper's  Ferry  to  the  divide  beyond  Staunton, 
where  rise  the  headwaters  of  the  James.  Walled 
in  by  the  Blue  Ridge  on  the  southeast  and  parallel 
ranges  of  the  Alleghanies  on  the  northwest,  it 
takes  its  name  from  the  beautiful  river  which 
winds  along  its  length,  and  which  the  Indians 

i 


'^"  Lights  and  Shadows 

poetically  christened  Shenandoah  (Daughter  of 
the  Stars!).  When  some  three  hundred  of  us 
prisoners  of  war  walked  wearily  a  hundred  miles 
from  Winchester  to  Staunton  in  September,  1864, 
it  was  still  rich  and  lovely.  A  few  weeks  later, 
the  necessities  of  war  made  it  a  scene  of  utter 
desolation. 

Grant  had  rightly  concluded  [says  Sheridan1], 
that  it  was  time  to  bring  the  war  home  to  a  people 
engaged  in  raising  crops  from  a  prolific  soil  to  feed  the 
country's  enemies,  and  devoting  to  the  Confederacy 
its  best  youth.  I  endorsed  the  program  in  all  its 
parts;  for  the  stores  of  meat  and  grain  that  the  val 
ley  provided,  and  the  men  it  furnished  for  Lee's 
depleted  regiments,  were  the  strongest  auxiliaries 
he  possessed. 

Accordingly  Grant  issued  orders  with  increasing 
emphasis,  particularly  in  August  and  September, 
to  make  the  whole  region  "a  barren  waste,"  to 

destroy  or  carry  off  the  crops  and  animals;  do  all 
possible  damage  to  railroads;  seize  stock  of  every 
description;  take  away  all  negro  laborers  so  as  to 
prevent  further  planting;  hold  as  prisoners  of  war,  if 
sympathizing  with  the  rebellion,  all  male  citizens 
under  fifty  years  of  age  capable  of  bearing  arms,  etc. 

In  obedience  to  these  commands,  Sheridan 
engaged  with  alacrity  in  the  work  of  destruction. 
In  a  few  weeks  he  reported  as  follows: 

1  Personal  Memoirs,  vol.  i.,  p.  487. 


In  Confederate  Prisons  3 

I  have  destroyed  2000  barns  filled  with  wheat,  hay, 
and  farming  implements;  over  70  mills  filled  with 
flour  and  wheat ;  and  driven  in  front  of  my  army  4000 
head  of  stock. 

Said  one  of  his  officers  who  knew  whereof  he  was 
speaking,  "  A  crow  flying  through  the  valley  would 
have  to  carry  his  own  rations,  for  he  could  pick 
up  nothing!  " 

At  Winchester,  the  principal  town  in  the 
Shenandoah  Valley,  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
N.  N.  W.  of  Richmond,  with  a  population  of  about 
four  thousand,  the  iQth  of  that  September  was  a 
day  of  glory  but  also  of  sorrow.  Four  thousand 
six  hundred  and  eighty  of  the  Union  Army,  killed 
and  wounded,  told  how  dearly  Sheridan's  first 
great  victory  was  gained. 

The  battle  was  fought  over  three,  four,  or  five 
square  miles,  east  and  north  from  Winchester, 
for  the  most  part  near  the  Opequon  Creek,  from 
which  it  is  sometimes  called  the  "  Battle  of  the 
Opequon."  To  reach  the  field,  the  bulk  of 
Sheridan's  army,  starting  at  three  o'clock  in  the 
morning  from  Benyville  ten  miles  east,  had  to 
pass  through  a  gorge  in  which  for  a  considerable 
distance  the  turnpike  extends  towards  Winchester. 
Sheridan's  plan  at  first  was  to  bring  his  army, 
except  Merritt's  and  Averell's  Divisions  of  Tor- 


4  Lights  and  Shadows 

bert's  Cavalry,  through  the  defile,  post  the  Sixth 
Corps  on  the  left,  the  Nineteenth  on  the  right, 
throw  Crook's  Army  of  West  Virginia  across  the 
Staunton  turnpike  (leading  southwest  from  Win 
chester),  and  so  cut  off  all  retreat  up  the  valley. 
Meanwhile  those  two  cavalry  divisions  were  to 
make  a  long  detour  on  our  right  to  the  north  from 
Berryville,  and  close  in  upon  the  Confederate  left. 
Sheridan  felt  sure  of  victory,  for  we  outnumbered 
the  enemy  nearly  two  to  one.  Had  our  army  got 
into  position  early  in  the  morning,  we  should  have 
captured  or  destroyed  the  whole  of  them. 

At  early  dawn  Mclntosh's  Brigade  of  Wilson's 
Division  of  Torbert's  Cavalry  dashed  through  the 
ravine,  closely  followed  by  Chapman's  Brigade 
and  five  batteries  of  horse  artillery.  Sheridan  and 
his  staff  followed.  They  surprised  and  captured 
a  small  earthwork,  and,  though  fiercely  assaulted, 
held  it  till  the  van  of  the  Sixth  Corps  relieved  them. 

The  narrow  pass  of  the  Berryville  pike  was  so 
obstructed  by  artillery,  ambulances,  ammunition 
wagons,  etc.,  that  it  was  nearly  eight  o'clock  before 
the  Sixth  Corps,  which  should  have  been  in  posi 
tion  with  Wilson's  Cavalry  at  sunrise,  began  to 
arrive;  and  it  was  fully  two  hours  later  when  the 
Nineteenth  Corps  debouched  and  deployed.  Here 
was  miscalculation  or  bad  management  or  both. 


In  Confederate  Prisons  5 

This  long  delay,  which  the  quick-moving  cavalry 
leader  Sheridan  had  not  foreseen  nor  provided  for, 
gave  time  for  Early  to  call  in  the  strong  divisions 
of  Generals  Gordon,  Breckenridge,  and  Rodes, 
from  the  vicinity  of  Stephenson's  Depot  several 
miles  away.  They  left  Patton's  Brigade  of  In 
fantry,  and  a  part  of  Fitzhugh  Lee's  Cavalry  to 
oppose  Torbert. 

Hearing  nothing  from  Torbert,  who  had  now 
been  gone  seven  or  eight  hours  on  his  circuitous 
route,  Sheridan  suddenly  changed  his  whole  plan 
of  action,  a  perilous  maneuver  in  the  face  of  an 
active  enemy  while  the  battle  is  already  raging 
intermittently.  Instead  of  flinging  Crook's  Army 
of  West  Virginia,  17  regiments  and  3  batteries, 
across  the  Staunton  pike,  to  front  northeasterly 
and  cut  off  all  possible  retreat  of  the  Confederates, 
he  determined  to  move  it  to  our  right  and  deploy 
it  in  line  with  the  Nineteenth.  Doubtless  this 
was  best  under  the  circumstances,  though  it  left 
to  the  enemy  the  broad  smooth  highway  as  a  line 
of  retreat  up  the  valley. 

Grover's  Division  (26.  of  the  Nineteenth  Corps) 
in  four  brigades  formed  line  of  battle  in  front  and 
to  the  right  of  the  gorge.  In  touch  on  the  left 
was  Ricketts'  Division  of  the  Sixth  Corps,  and 
resting  on  Ricketts'  left  was  Getty's  Division  of 


6  Lights  and  Shadows 

the  same  corps.  Getty  had  16  regiments  in  line; 
Ricketts,  12  with  6  batteries;  Grover,  20  with  3 
batteries. 

Had  Sheridan  been  able  to  strike  Early  by  half- 
past  eight  with  the  Sixth  and  Nineteenth,  he  would 
have  crushed  him  in  detail.  Had  Early  massed 
the  divisions  of  Gordon,  Breckenridge,  and  Rodes, 
and  hurled  them  at  the  mouth  of  the  canyon  at 
ten  o'clock  while  half  of  the  Nineteenth  was  still 
entangled  in  it,  he  would  probably  have  split  our 
army  into  three  parts,  and  destroyed  those  already 
arrived. 

It  was  now  eleven  o'clock,  and  the  Army  of 
West  Virginia  at  last  emerged  from  the  defile. 
To  make  room  for  its  movement  in  our  rear  behind 
Grover 's  Division,  and  to  hold  the  enemy  in  play 
until  it  should  have  taken  its  place  on  the  right  of 
the  Nineteenth,  and  perhaps  to  await  there  the 
appearance  of  Torbert's  Cavalry,  it  was  desirable 
that  Grover  should  advance.  Sheridan  of  course 
meant  the  whole  front  of  the  Sixth  and  Nineteenth 
to  keep  in  a  continuous  line.  At  first  it  seemed  to 
me  that  the  regiments  of  the  Nineteenth  over 
lapped;  but  the  lines  of  advance  were  slightly 
divergent,  and  wide  breaks  began  to  appear 
between  battalions.  Especially  on  the  left  of  the 
Nineteenth  a  large  and  widening  gap  appeared;  for 


In  Confederate  Prisons  7 

Ricketts  had  been  instructed  to  guide  on  the 
Berryville  pike,  and  that  bore  away  to  the  left 
and  south. 

My  battalion,  the  veteran  Thirteenth  Conn. 
Infantry,  should  have  been  led  by  my  Colonel, 
C.  D.  Blinn:  but  he  was  sick  the  night  before,  and 
in  the  morning,  at  the  crossing  of  the  Opequon,  he 
fell  out,  and  left  the  command  to  me.  He  had 
no  part  in  the  battle.  Our  Thirteenth  deserves  a 
passing  notice.  It  was  the  favorite  regiment  of 
General  Birge,  its  first  colonel.1  When  he  was 
made  brigadier,  the  regiment  entered  the  brigade 
commanded  by  Colonel  E.  L.  Molineux.  Birge 
was  never  so  happy  as  when  riding  into  action, 
and  Molineux,  who  had  been  severely  wounded 
in  the  same  battle  with  me,  was  not  over-cautious. 
My  regiment  and  both  brigades,  the  first  and 
second  of  Grover's  Division,  had  caught  the  spirit 
of  those  two  commanders.  Quite  generally  they 


fln  New  Orleans  it  was  known  as  "Butler's  Dandy  Regiment"; 
for  it  was  then  better  dressed  than  any  other.  It  wore  dark  blue, 
which  Birge  had  procured  through  his  uncle,  Buckingham,  the 
war  governor  of  Connecticut.  At  the  siege  of  Port  Hudson  it 
had  distinguished  itself  above  all  other  regiments  by  furnishing 
as  volunteers  nearly  one-fourth  of  the  celebrated  "Storming 
Column"  of  one  thousand  men  called  for  by  General  N.  P. 
Banks  the  second  day  after  the  disastrous  assault  on  that  fortress 
(June  14,  1863).  Birge  was  selected  by  Banks  to  lead  the  forlorn 
hope. 


8  Lights  and  Shadows 

mistook  the  forward  movement  for  an  immediate 
charge. 

We  had  been  under  an  intermittent  fire  for  some 
time,  but  now  the  advance  intensified  the  conflict. 
The  chief  anxiety  of  good  soldiers  at  such  a  time, 
as  I  often  noticed,  is  to  get  at  the  enemy  as  soon 
as  possible,  and  cease  to  be  mere  targets.  Their 
enthusiasm  now  accelerated  their  pace  to  a  double- 
quick,  and  was  carrying  them  too  far  to  the  front. 
Birge  and  Molineux  endeavored  in  vain  to  check 
their  rapidity.  My  battalion,  I  think,  was  nearest 
the  rebel  line. 

Between  eleven  and  twelve  the  divisions  of 
Getty,  Ricketts,  and  Grover,  forty-eight  regiments 
in  all,  to  which  were  attached  eight  light  batteries 
with  reserve  artillery,  began  to  move  forward. 
It  was  a  grand  spectacle.  At  first  the  movement 
was  steady,  and  we  thought  of  Scott's  lines, 

The  host  moves  like  a  deep-sea  wave, 
Where  rise  no  rocks  its  pride  to  brave, 
High-swelling,  dark,  and  slow. 

But  all  is  quickly  changed. 

Looking  back  upon  that  scene  after  the  lapse  of 
more  than  fifty  years,  its  magnificence  has  not  yet 
faded.  I  see  as  in  a  dream  our  long  bending  wave 
of  blue  rolling  slowly  at  first  but  with  increas- 


In  Confederate  Prisons  9 

ing  speed,  foam- tipped  with  flags  here  and  there 
and  steel-crested  with  Birge's  bayonets  yonder; 
glimpses  of  cavalry  in  the  distance  moving  as  if  on 
wings  with  the  lightness  of  innumerable  twinkling 
feet;  numberless  jets  of  smoke  across  the  fields 
marking  the  first  line  of  Confederate  infantry, 
their  musketry  rattling  precisely  like  exploding 
bunches  of  firecrackers;  batteries  galloping  to 
position,  the  thunder  of  a  dozen  smiting  the  ear 
more  rapidly  than  one  could  count ;  the  buzz,  hiss, 
whistle,  shriek,  crash,  hurricane  of  projectiles;  the 
big  shot  from  batteries  in  front  and  from  Braxton's 
artillery  on  our  right  ripping  up  the  ground  and 
bounding  away  to  the  rear  and  the  left;  horses 
and  riders  disappearing  in  the  smoke  of  exploding 
shells;  the  constant  shouting  of  our  officers  in 
distinctly  heard,  and  now  and  then  the  peculiar 
well-known  "rebel  yell";  and  finally  the  com 
mand,  HALT  !  LIE  DOWN  !  Molineux  and  Birge  were 
too  far  to  the  front,  and  the  line  must  be  rectified. 
Ricketts,  as  we  pressed  forward,  had  thrown 
Keifer's  Brigade  (2d  of  Third  Division,  Sixth 
Corps),  seven  regiments,  into  the  broadening  in 
terval  directly  in  front  of  the  mouth  of  the  gorge; 
but  it  was  not  sufficient. 

It  was  now  Early 's  opportunity;  but  he  was 
hours  too  late,  just  as  Sheridan  had  been.     He 


io  Lights  and  Shadows 

had  seen  our  Sixth  Corps  and  Nineteenth  emerge 
and  deploy,  had  beheld  our  rapid  and  somewhat 
disorderly  approach,  had  noted  the  widening 
spaces  between  our  battalions  and  divisions,  had 
observed  the  havoc  wrought  by  his  artillery  and 
musketry,  ten  thousand  of  our  soldiers  seeming  to 
sink  under  it;  had  had  time  to  mass  his  forces; 
and  now  it  was  "up  to  him"  to  hurl  them  against 
our  centre.  It  was  the  strategy  inaugurated  by 
Epaminondas  at  Leuctra  and  perfected  by  Napo 
leon  in  many  a  hard  battle,  breaking  the  enemy's 
centre  by  an  irresistible  charge,  dividing  and 
conquering.  Rodes  had  been  killed  at  a  battery  in 
front  of  our  brigade.  His  veterans  and  Gordon's, 
six  thousand  strong1  constituted  the  charging  col 
umn.  Neither  Sheridan  nor  any  other  Federal  his 
torian  appears  to  have  done  justice  to  this  charge. 
Pickett's  at  Gettysburg  was  not  more  brilliant. 

With  yells  distinctly  heard  above  the  roar  they 
advanced.  The  batteries  on  each  side  redoubled 
their  discharges.  From  our  irregular  line  of 
infantry  extending  more  than  a  mile  blazed  inces 
sant  sheets  and  spurts  of  flame,  the  smoke  at  times 
hiding  the  combatants.  Gordon  was  heading 
toward  the  now  nearly  empty  ravine.  My  horse 

1  Six  thousand  is  Gordon's  statement  in  his  Reminiscences, 
page  320. 


In  Confederate  Prisons  n 

had  just  been  shot  under  me.  I  lost  two  in  that 
fight.  Dismounted  I  walked  from  the  right  of  my 
battalion  to  the  left,  cautioning  my  men  against 
wasting  their  ammunition,  bidding  them  take 
sure  aim,  pick  out  the  rebel  officers,  and  not  fire 
too  high.  They  were  shooting  from  a  recumbent 
position,  or  resting  on  one  knee ;  lying  flat  on  their 
backs  to  reload.  As  I  reached  the  left,  I  glanced  to 
the  right  and  saw  several  of  them  starting  to  their 
feet,  and  a  little  further  on,  two  or  three  began 
to  run  back.  I  rushed  to  the  spot  shouting, 
"Back  to  your  places!"  I  saw  the  cause:  the 
regiments  on  our  right  were  retreating.  I  was 
astounded,  for  we  were  expecting  an  order  to 
advance  instantly.  At  that  moment  Lieutenant 
Handy,  an  aide  of  our  brigade  commander, 
rode  up,  pale,  excited,  his  hands  flung  up  as  if  in 
despair.  My  men  were  springing  to  their  feet. 

"What  are  those  orders?"  I  demanded. 

"Retreat,  retreat!  get  to  the  rear  as  fast  as 
possible,"  he  replied. 

"Battalion,  rise  up;  shoulder  arms—  '  I  com 
manded.  Before  I  could  finish  the  order,  one  of 
Sheridan's  staff  came  on  a  swift  gallop,  his  horse 
white  with  foam. 

"For  God's  sake,  what  does  this  mean?"  said 
he;  "this  retreat  must  be  stopped!" 


12  Lights  and  Shadows 

"Battalion,  lie  down/'  I  shouted;  ''our  brigade 
commander  ordered  retreat!" 

"  It's  all  wrong.  If  this  position's  lost,  all's  lost. 
Here  you  have  some  cover.  Hold  it  to  the  last. 
I'll  bring  supports  immediately."  Striking  spurs 
into  his  steed,  he  vanished  in  the  direction  of  the 
retreating  regiments. 

Except  the  few  who  had  heard  my  command 
and  remained  in  position,  perhaps  seventy-five 
or  a  hundred,  who  kept  blazing  away  at  the  Con 
federates,  rising  a  little  to  kneel  and  fire,  Grover's 
Division,  and  all  we  could  see  of  that  of  Ricketts, 
had  gone  to  pieces,  swept  away  like  chaff  before  a 
whirlwind.  Not  a  Union  flag  now  in  sight,  but 
plenty  of  the  "Stars  and  Bars!"  Our  sputtering 
fire  checked  some  directly  in  front;  but  most  of 
the  on- rushing  masses  were  deflected  by  the  nature 
of  the  ground. 

Out  of  our  view  and  about  half  a  mile  in  our 
rear  was  D wight's  Division,  the  First  of  the 
Nineteenth  Corps.  It  had  been  left  in  reserve. 
It  was  in  line  of  battle  and  ready  for  the  onset. 
The  confused  fragments  of  Grover  were  rallied 
behind  it.  Had  the  ground  been  favorable,  and 
had  no  unexpected  opposition  been  encountered, 
Gordon  would  have  crushed  Dwight. 

But  in  fewer  minutes  than  we  have  occupied  in 


In  Confederate  Prisons  13 

describing  this  charge,  a  tremendous  and  prolonged 
roar  and  rattle  told  us  that  the  battle  was  on 
behind  us  more  than  in  front.  Amid  the  din 
arose  a  quick  succession  of  deafening  crashes, 
and  shot  and  shell  came  singing  and  howling  over 
us  from  the  left.  Russell's  Division  (First  of  the 
Sixth  Corps)  comprising  eleven  infantry  regiments 
and  one  of  heavy  artillery,  behind  which  the  broken 
battalions  of  Ricketts  had  been  reassembling, 
was  now  smiting  the  right  flank  of  Gordon's  six 
thousand.  Although  the  charge  came  too  late 
we  cannot  but  admire  the  strategy  that  directed 
it,  and  the  bravery  of  the  infantry  of  Gordon, 
Rodes,  and  Ramseur,  as  well  as  that  of  the  cavahy 
of  Lomax,  Jackson,  and  Johnson,  and  of  Fitzhugh 
Lee  who  fell  severely  wounded.  But  they  had  not 
foreseen  the  terrible  cross-fire  from  Russell,  who 
died  at  the  head  of  his  division,  a  bullet  piercing 
his  breast  and  a  piece  of  shell  tearing  through  his 
heart.  Nor  had  they  calculated  on  confronting 
the  long  line  of  Dwight,  nine  regiments  with  the 
Fifth  New  York  Battery,  all  of  which  stood  like  a 
stone  breakwater.  Against  it  Gordon's  masses, 
broken  by  the  irregularities  of  the  ground,  dashed 
in  vain.  Under  the  ceaseless  fire  of  iron  and  lead 
the  refluent  waves  came  pouring  back.  Our  army 
was  saved, 


14  Lights  and  Shadows 

But  we  few,  who,  in  obedience  to  explicit  orders 
from  headquarters,  had  held  our  position  stiffly 
farthest  to  the  front  when  all  the  rest  of  Grover's 
and  Ricketts'  thousands  had  retreated — we  were 
lost.  A  column  behind  a  rebel  flag  was  advancing 
straight  upon  us  unchecked  by  our  vigorous  fire. 
Seeing  that  they  meant  business,  I  commanded, 
"Fix  Bayonets!"  At  that  instant  the  gray  surges 
converged  upon  us  right  and  left  and  especially 
in  our  rear.  We  seemed  in  the  middle  of  the 
rebel  army.  In  the  crater  of  such  a  volcano,  fine 
spun  theories,  poetic  resolves  to  die  rather  than  be 
captured — these  are  point-lace  in  a  furnace.  A 
Union  officer,  Capt.  W.  Frank  Tiemann  of  the 
1 59th  N.  Y.,  Molineux's  Brigade,  was  showing 
fight,  and  half  a  dozen  Confederates  with  clubbed 
muskets  were  rushing  upon  him.  I  leaped  to  the 
spot,  sword  in  hand,  and  shouted  with  all  the  sem 
blance  I  could  assume  of  fierce  authority, 

"Down  with  those  muskets!  Stop!  I  com 
mand  you. "  They  lowered  them. 

"Who  the  hell  are  you?"  they  asked. 

"I'll  let  you  know."  Turning  instantly  to  four 
or  five  Confederate  officers,  I  demanded:  "Do  you 
mean  to  massacre  my  men?" 

Two  or  three  replied:  "No.  By  G— !  You've 
shown  yourselves  brave,  and  you  shall  be  re- 


In  Confederate  Prisons  15 

spected.  Yes,  you  fought  d — d  well,  seein'  you  had 
the  d — dest  brigade  to  fight  against  in  the  whole 
Confederate  Army. " 

"What  brigade  are  you?"  I  asked. 

"Ramseur's  old  brigade;  and  there's  nothin* 
this  side  o'  hell  can  lick  it." 

"You're  brave  enough,"  said  another;  "but 
damn  you,  you've  killed  our  best  general." 

"Who's  that?  "I  asked. 

"Rodes;  killed  right  in  front  of  you." 

"I  thought  Early  was  your  best  General." 

"Not  by  a  d—  sight.  Old  Jubal's  drunk- 
drunk  as  a  fool." 

I  was  never  more  highly  complimented  than  at 
this  moment;  but  the  stunning  consciousness  of 
being  a  prisoner,  the  bitterest  experience  of  my 
life,  the  unspeakable  disappointment,  the  intense 
mortification — these  are  even  to  this  day  poorly 
mitigated,  much  less  compensated,  by  the  exces 
sive  praises  heaped  upon  me  by  those  Confederate 
officers  for  my  supposed  bravery.  That  they 
were  sincere  I  cannot  doubt;  for  it  was  customary 
on  the  battle-field  for  the  rebels  to  strip  prisoners 
of  all  valuables,  but  no  one  of  the  fifty  or  one 
hundred  near  me  was  robbed.  Tiemann,  whose 
life  I  had  perhaps  saved,  was  even  privileged  to 
keep  his  canteen  of  whiskey,  of  which  he  gave  me 


1 6  In  Confederate  Prisons 

a  drink  by  and  by  to  keep  me  in  good  spirits!  I 
realized  the  truth  of  Burns's  lines: 

Inspiring  bold  John  Barleycorn! 

What  dangers  thou  canst  make  us  scorn! 

Wi'  tippenny,  we  fear  nae  evil; 

Wi'  usquebaugh,  we'll  face  the  devil! 


CHAPTER  II 

At  Winchester— On  the  Road   thence  to  Tom's  Brook,  New 
Market,  and  Staunton. 

THERE  were  two  battles  that  Monday  between 
Sheridan  and  Early,  the  first  indecisive,  though 
bloody,  a  drawn  game;  the  second,  after  a  com 
parative  lull  of  several  hours,  a  fierce  struggle  in 
which  the  whole  front  of  the  Sixth,  Nineteenth, 
and  Crook's  Corps  simultaneously  advanced,  and 
Torbert's  Cavalry,  arriving  at  last  after  their 
unaccountable  delay  upon  our  extreme  right,  made 
a  magnificent  charge  crumpling  up  all  the  enemy's 
left.  The  victory  was  real,  but  not  so  complete 
as  it  should  have  been.  Sheridan  ought  to  have 
captured  or  destroyed  the  whole  of  Early's  army. 
Instead,  he  had  left  them  an  open  line  of  re 
treat.  He  took  only  five  pieces  of  artillery,  nine 
battle-flags,  and  some  twelve  or  fifteen  hundred 
prisoners;  and,  to  use  his  own  words,  "sent  the 
Confederates  whirling  up  the  valley." 

In  the  recoil  of  Gordon's  brilliant  charge  of  six 
thousand  about  noon,  we  prisoners  were  swept 


i8  Lights  and  Shadows 

along  into  Winchester,  and  then  locked  in  the  old 
Masonic  Hall.  The  sociable  guards  took  pains  to 
emphasize  the  statement  that  George  Washing 
ton,  "glorious  rebel"  they  called  him,  had  presided 
as  Grand  Master  in  that  very  room ! 

After  several  hours  we  heard  a  great  noise  in  the 
streets.  Looking  out  we  saw  men,  women,  children, 
moving  rapidly  hither  and  thither,  the  current  for 
the  most  part  setting  toward  the  southwest.  The 
din  increased ;  the  panic  became  general ;  the  Union 
Army  was  advancing  on  Winchester! 

We  were  hustled  into  the  street  now  filled  with 
retreating  hundreds,  and  were  marched  rapidly 
along  the  turnpike  toward  the  setting  sun.  The 
road  crowded  with  artillery,  army  wagons,  com 
mon  carriages,  all  pouring  along  in  the  stampede; 
a  formidable  provost  guard  enclosing  us  prisoners 
in  a  sort  of  hollow  column;  cavalry  in  front,  flank, 
and  rear;  the  fields  on  either  side  swarming  with 
infantry,  the  whole  of  Early's  army  in  retreat,  we 
apparently  in  the  middle  of  it;  Sheridan's  guns 
still  booming  in  our  rear — such  was  the  scene  as 
we  two  or  three  hundred  prisoners  were  driven 
on.  Our  mingled  emotions  can  be  better  imagined 
than  described.  The  bitter  regret  that  we  had 
not  been  slain;  the  consciousness  that  we  had 
done  our  whole  duty  in  facing  unflinchingly  the 


In  Confederate  Prisons  19 

storm  of  shot  and  shell,  never  retreating  an  inch; 
the  evident  respect  and  even  courtesy  with  which 
I  was  personally  treated;  the  inspiring  certainty 
that  our  army  was  victorious,  the  unspeakable 
mortification  of  being  ourselves  prisoners  of 
war! — we  sorely  needed  all  our  philosophy  and  all 
our  religion  to  sustain  us. 

Marching  moodily  along  I  was  aroused  from  a 
sort  of  reverie  by  an  experience  far  too  common 
in  those  days.  I  had  been  sick  the  night  before, 
and  had  worn  my  overcoat  into  battle.  My  horse 
was  shot.  The  blood  was  spurting  from  him.  As 
he  seemed  likely  to  fall,  I  leaped  down.  We  were 
in  the  midst  of  a  rapid  advance  and  I  had  not  time 
to  throw  off  my  overcoat.  I  was  now  carrying 
it  swung  over  my  arm.  It  was  growing  dark.  A 
mounted  soldier,  whom  I  took  to  be  an  officer, 
rode  up  to  my  side  and  seized  hold  of  the  coat. 
He  said,  "I  want  that  overcoat."  I  replied, 
"  You  can't  have  it. "  "I  must  have  it. "  " You 
shan't  have  it."  He  tugged  and  I  tugged,  and  as 
I  was  on  foot  and  sober  I  nearly  dragged  him  from 
his  horse  before  he  let  go.  During  the  tussle  I 
repeatedly  shouted,  "Captain  of  the  Guard- 
Help!  Help!"  The  provost  captain  instantly 
came  riding  to  the  spot.  "What's  the  matter?" 
he  asked.  "That  rascal  has  tried  to  rob  me  of  my 


2o  Lights  and  Shadows 

overcoat,"  I  answered,  pointing  to  the  villain 
who  was  beginning  to  slink  away.  The  captain 
appeared  to  recognize  him,  said  not  a  word  to  him, 
but  whispered  to  me  a  moment  later,  "You  are 
entitled  to  keep  your  overcoat." 

We  had  had  little  breakfast  and  no  dinner  nor 
supper,  but  we  suffered  more  from  thirst  than 
hunger.  Can  we  ever  forget  it?  Will  the  long 
flight  never  end?  On  through  Kerrstown  without 
halting  we  march,  with  promise  of  rest  and  water 
at  Newtown;  no  rest  nor  water  there.  On  from 
Newtown  with  assurance  of  water  at  Middletown. 
Five  minutes  at  Middletown,  and  a  little  muddy 
water  that  seems  to  aggravate  our  thirst.  Far 
ther  on  we  cross  a  bridge  under  which  the  water 
is  dashing  as  if  in  mockery,  and  the  cry  "Water! 
water!"  rises  from  a  hundred  lips,  the  guard  join 
ing,  for  they  are  suffering  like  ourselves.  Some 
comfort  in  that!  Past  midnight  we  reach  Stras- 
burg  and  are  halted  around  an  old  wooden  pump. 
It  is  broken !  No  water  there.  Still  on  and  on  at 
a  snail-pace,  up  and  over  the  almost  interminable 
stretch  of  Fisher's  Hill.  At  three  o'clock  in  the 
morning  we  arrive  at  a  place  known  by  the  classi 
cal  name  of  Tom's  Brook  about  twenty-five  miles 
from  Winchester.  Never  was  nectar  more  delicious 
than  the  water  of  this  stream,  nor  downy  pillow 


In  Confederate  Prisons  21 

more  welcome  than  the  sod  on  its  banks.  With 
out  blankets  or  covering  we  sank  in  each  other's 
arms  for  mutual  warmth  on  the  dew-drenched 
grass;  and  blistered  feet  and  aching  limbs  and 
hunger  and  thirst  and  suffocating  despair  are  all 
forgotten ! 

Morning  came  unnoticed,  except  by  those  whom 
the  keen  cold  permitted  to  sleep  no  longer.  To 
wards  noon  we  rose,  washed  without  soap  or  towel, 
were  made  to  form  line,  had  our  names  taken,  and 
received  as  rations  a  pint  of  flour  per  man,  with  a 
little  salt,  nothing  else.  How  to  cook  or  prepare 
the  flour?  We  learned  of  the  rebel  guards  a  proc 
ess  not  laid  down  in  the  cook-books.  Mixing 
with  water  they  made  a  stiff  paste  or  dough. 
This  they  put  around  the  end  of  a  stick  about  the 
size  and  half  the  length  of  a  walking  cane.  The 
end  thus  thickly  coated  they  hold  over  a  little  fire 
till  the  smoke  and  flame  have  sufficiently  hard 
ened  it.  Then  pull  out  your  stick  and  you  have 
a  thick  chunk  or  cylinder  of  bread,  not  quite  so 
tough  as  a  gun-barrel,  but  substantial! 

I  contrived  to  keep  a  little  memorandum  book. 
In  it  I  noted  down  that  there  were  three  hundred 
and  eleven  of  us  prisoners ;  two  lieutenant- colonels, 
two  majors,  four  captains,  nine  lieutenants,  and 
two  hundred  and  ninety-four  enlisted  men.  These 


22  Lights  and  Shadows 

were  in  the  march  from  Winchester.  A  few  may 
have  been  added  to  our  number  at  Tom's  Brook. 
I  have  stated  how  it  happened  that  none  of  those 
near  me  were  robbed  when  captured.  Those  at  a 
distance  were  not  so  fortunate;  for,  if  circumstances 
permitted,  the  Confederates,  being  themselves 
sadly  in  want,  often  improved  the  opportunity  to 
grab  every  article  of  value.  At  Tom's  Brook  I 
noted  in  my  diary  the  following: 

Major  A.  W.  Wakefield,  49th  Pa.  Cav.,  was  robbed 
of  hat,  blanket,  and  $100  in  money.  Adjt.  J.  A. 
Clark,  iyth  Pa.  Cav.,  was  robbed  of  cap,  boots,  mug, 
pocket-book  and  money.  Lieut.  Harrison,  2d  Regular 
Cav.,  was  robbed  of  gold  watch  and  money.  Capt. 
John  R.  Rouzer,  6th  Md.  Inf.,  was  robbed  by  an 
officer  of  hat  and  $20  in  money.  Lieut.  Wesley  C. 
Howe,  2d  Mass.  Cav.,  who  recently  died  at  Kansas 
City,  Mo.,  was  robbed  by  Lieut.  Housel  of  the  6th 
Va.  Cav.,  of  silver  watch,  spurs,  gloves,  and  $10  in 
money.  Major  August  Haurand,  4th  N.  Y.  Cav., 
was  robbed  of  a  watch  and  $60  in  money. 

It  was  a  common  practice  to  snatch  from  a  Union 
prisoner  his  cap,  and  clap  on  in  lieu  of  it  a  worn-out 
slouched  hat;  pull  off  his  boots,  and  substitute  a 
pair  of  clumsy  old  shoes.  The  plundering  was  so 
thoroughly  done  that  it  was  poetically  termed 
" going  through"  a  captive! 

As  I  was  the  senior  officer  among  the  prisoners, 
and  we  seemed  likely  to  remain  a  long  time  there, 


In  Confederate  Prisons  23 

I  went  to  the  Confederate  commander  and  be 
sought  him  to  allow  our  three  hundred  prisoners 
to  occupy  a  barn  near  by.  He  refused.  I  then 
asked  that  we  be  allowed  to  build  wigwams  for 
shelter,  as  there  was  abundant  material  at  hand. 
This  too  was  not  permitted.  I  also  begged  in 
vain  that  a  surgeon  should  be  got  to  dress  the 
wounds  of  some  of  the  prisoners. 

The  second  morning  after  our  arrival,  the  sleep 
ing  men  were  aroused  by  the  loud  voice  of 
Lieutenant  Sargent  of  the  I4th  New  Hampshire 
Regiment  exclaiming:  "If  you  give  me  any  more 
of  your  lip,  I'll  annihilate  you!  I've  but  one 
arm"  (his  right  arm  was  disabled  by  a  shot), 
"but  even  with  one  arm  I'll  annihilate  you  on 
the  spot,  if  you  give  me  any  more  of  your  lip!" 
This  was  exceedingly  gratifying,  for  it  proved  that 
at  least  two  of  us  were  not  yet  "annihilated!" 

During  our  sojourn  at  Tom's  Brook  the  Confed 
erates  labored  hard  to  induce  us  to  exchange  our 
greenbacks  for  their  paper  currency.  Our  own 
was  sadly  depreciated,  one  dollar  of  silver  or  gold 
being  equal  to  two  of  greenbacks;  but  one  in 
United  States  paper  was  equal  in  purchasing  power 
to  eight  of  theirs.  They  argued  that  our  money 
would  certainly  be  forcibly  taken  from  us  by 
rapacious  guards  farther  south,  and  kindly  offered 


24  Lights  and  Shadows 

us  four  for  one.  Sergeant  Reed  of  the  Provost 
Guard  was  quite  a  character.  Like  Gratiano 
in  The  Merchant  of  Venice,  he  talked  loud  and  long, 
speaking  "an  infinite  deal  of  nothing. "  He  had  a 
mania  for  watches.  He  told  me  he  now  had 
twenty-seven  which  he  had  obtained  from  Yankee 
prisoners,  always  paying  them  in  good  Confederate 
money.  He  set  his  heart  upon  a  little  silver  watch 
of  mine,  which  he  said  he  wished  to  buy  and 
present  to  one  of  his  lady  admirers.  I  asked: 

"Why  do  they  admire  you?" 

"Because  of  my  bravery,"  he  replied;  "none 
but  the  brave  deserve  the  fair." 

"If  you  are  so  brave,  why  are  you  back  here? 
Why  are  you  not  at  the  front?" 

"Colonel,  I've  been  in  the  forefront  of  the 
hottest  battles.  I've  been  fearfully  wounded. 
I'll  be  hanged  if  I  haven't  been  one  of  the  bravest 
of  the  brave.  Twice,  Colonel,  I  was  shot  all  into 
inch  pieces;  and  so  now  I'm  put  on  light  duty!" 

On  Thursday,  the  third  day  after  our  arrival, 
two  "india-rubber  men, "  circus  performers,  of  the 
22d  Indiana  Regiment,  gave  an  exhibition  of 
"ground  and  lofty  tumbling"  for  the  entertain 
ment  of  their  fellow  prisoners.  They  had  some 
how  contrived  to  retain  the  gaudy  costume  of  the 
ring.  They  were  really  skillful.  While  we  were 


In  Confederate  Prisons  25 

watching  with  interest  the  acrobatic  performance, 
a  squadron  of  the  Confederate  General  Imboden's 
Cavalry  dashed  past  us.  Sergeant  Reed,  who-  had 
just  made  me  an  offer  for  my  watch,  sprang  to 
his  feet,  exclaiming:  "I  swear!  there  must  be  a 
battle  going  on  in  front,  for  there  goes  Jimboden's 
Cavalry  to  the  rear!  Sure  sign!  I'll  be  hanged 
if  we  ain't  get  tin'  licked  again!"  We  had  heard 
the  cannonading  in  the  distance,  but  paid  little 
attention  to  it.  The  Richmond  papers,  announc 
ing  that  Fisher's  Hill  was  impregnable  to  the 
whole  Yankee  army,  were  said  to  have  been  re 
ceived  about  an  hour  before  the  heights  were  act 
ually  carried  by  storm.  Again  Early 's  army  was 
not  captured,  but  sent  "whirling  up  the  valley." 

We  prisoners  thoroughly  enjoyed  the  changed 
aspect  of  affairs.  At  first  they  marched  us  directly 
back  a  short  distance  up  the  slope  towards  the 
advancing  Yankees;  but  they  seemed  suddenly  to 
discover  their  mistake;  they  halted,  faced  about, 
and  marched  down.  Hilarious  and  saucy,  our 
boys  struck  up  the  song  and  three  hundred  voices 
swelled  the  chorus: 

Rally  round  the  flag,  boys,  rally  once  again, 
Shouting  the  battle-cry  of  Freedom — 

The  Union  forever!  hurrah,  boys,  hurrah! 

Down  with  the  traitor!  up  with  the  star!  etc. 


26  Lights  and  Shadows 

till  Captain  Haslett  of  the  provost  guard  came 
riding  into  the  midst  with  savage  oaths  shouting, 
"Silence!  SILENCE!  SILENCE!" 

Twenty-seven  miles,  first  through  stifling  dust 
and  then  through  pelting  rain,  past  Hawkinstown, 
Woodstock,  Edenburg,  Mount  Jackson,  brought 
us  to  New  Market.  On  the  march  Colonel  Brinton 
of  a  Pennsylvania  regiment,  a  new  arrival,  planned 
with  me  an  escape.  He  had  campaigned  through 
the  valley,  was  familiar  with  the  lay  of  the  land, 
and  said  he  had  friends  among  the  inhabitants. 
Our  plan  was  to  run  past  the  guards  in  the  dark 
ness.  As  a  preliminary  step  I  cut  off  my  shoulder- 
straps  which  were  very  bright.  Within  half  an 
hour  Sergeant  Reed  came  up  to  me  and  asked, 
"Colonel,  where's  your  shoulder-straps?"  I  re 
plied,  "I  don't  wear  shoulder-straps  now  I'm  a 
prisoner."  "But,  Colonel,"  he  answered,  "I've 
been  lookin'  at  them  shoulder-straps  since  we  left 
Tom's  Brook.  I  wanted  to  buy  'em  of  you  for  a 
present  to  one  of  my  girls.  I'll  be  hanged  if  I 
don't  believe  you're  goin'  to  try  to  escape,  and  so 
you've  cut  off  your  bright  shoulder-straps.  But, 
Colonel,  it's  impossible.  I'll  be  hanged  if  I  hadn't 
rather  lose  any  six  of  the  others  than  to  lose  you." 
The  fellow  stuck  closer  to  me  than  a  brother  all  the 
rest  of  that  night;  so  close  that  he  lost  sight  of 


In  Confederate  Prisons  27 

Colonel  Brinton,  who  actually  escaped  about  mid 
night  at  a  place  called  Edenburg !  Almost  imme 
diately  Sergeant  Reed  came  to  me  and  asked, 
' '  Colonel,  where's  that  other  Colonel  ?  "  I  answered : 
"  You  ought  to  know;  /  don't ! "— "  I'll  be  hanged, " 
said  he,  "if  I  haven't  lost  him,  a-watchin'  you!" 

At  New  Market  they  put  us  into  a  dilapidated 
church  building.  "The  wicked  flea,  when  no  man 
pursueth  but  the  righteous,  is  bold  as  a  lion,"  was 
repeatedly  misquoted  from  the  Book  of  Proverbs, 
and  not  without  reason.  We  concluded  if  that 
interpretation  was  correct,  we  had  reason  enough 
for  obeying  the  injunction  in  Ecclesiastes,  "Be  not 
righteous  overmuch";  for  the  little  jumpers  were 
fearless  and  countless.  They  were  reinforced  by  a 
Confederate  deacon,  who  recommended  two  things : 
Confederate  paper  and  "gospel  piety";  the  one 
would  carry  us  safely  through  this  world ;  the  other 
through  the  next.  He  would  be  only  too  happy 
to  furnish  us  the  currency  in  exchange  for  our 
greenbacks.  "  Confederate  treasury  bills  and  true 
religion"  was  the  burden  of  his  song,  till  one  of 
our  literary  officers,  it  was  said,  squelched  him: 
"Deacon,  your  recipe  of  happiness,  rebel  paper 
and  godliness — Confederate  money  and  a  Chris 
tian  spirit! — reminds  me  of  what  Byron  says  in 
one  of  his  wicked  poems : 


28  Lights  and  Shadows 

'  Beyond  all  doubt  there's  nought  the  spirit  cheers 
Like  rum  and  true  religion ! ' ' 

He  subsided. 

We  left  New  Market  at  noon,  Saturday,  Septem 
ber  24th,  and  marched  all  the  afternoon  and  all 
night,  past  Harrisonburg,  Mount  Crawford,  Mount 
Sidney,  and  Willow  Springs,  reaching  Staun ton,  Va. , 
about  nine  in  the  morning.  On  the  march,  forty- 
three  miles  in  twenty-one  hours,  we  were  hungry; 
for  the  morning  ration  at  New  Market  was  scanty, 
and  they  gave  us  nothing  more,  except  a  small 
loaf  of  wheat  bread.  Some  of  the  guard  were  kind 
to  us.  One  of  them,  private  John  Crew,  Co.  E, 
nth  Alabama  Regiment,  unsolicited  by  us,  and, 
so  far  as  I  am  aware,  without  hope  of  any  reward, 
would  endeavor  to  bring  us  apples  or  other  food, 
whenever  we  halted.  I  was  careful  to  write  his 
name  in  my  diary. 

As  we  trudged  along,  a  lively  discussion  of 
slavery  ensued.  Lieutenant  Howard  of  the  provost 
guard  was  a  learned  champion  of  the  "peculiar 
institution,"  and  I  was  a  pronounced  abolitionist. 
He  was  an  ardent  "fire-eater,"  to  use  the  term 
then  in  vogue,  and  I,  who  had  lost  my  position 
as  principal  of  the  Worcester  High  School  by 
my  defense  of  John  Brown,  was  equally  intense. 
Both  were  pretty  well  "posted"  on  the  subject. 


In  Confederate  Prisons  29 

He  seemed  to  be  familiar  with  the  Bible  and  the 
proslavery  arguments,  including  drunken  Noah's 
"Cursed  Canaan!"  Moses  Stuart's  Conscience  and 
the  Constitution,  Nehemiah  Adams's  Southside  View 
of  Slavery,  and  Rev.  Dr. — (the  name  is  gone  from 
me)  of  Baltimore's  Sermons.  I  was  fresh  from 
reading  the  arguments  of  George  B.  Cheever, 
Horace  Bushnell,  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  Garrison, 
Phillips,  and  the  rest.  He  proved  that  slavery 
among  the  Hebrews  was  a  divine  institution.  I 
answered  they  were  commanded  to  "undo  the 
heavy  burdens,  let  the  oppressed  go  free,  and  break 
every  yoke."  He  said  Paul  sent  back  the  fugitive 
slave  Onesimus  to  his  master  Philemon;  I  re 
joined,  "Paul  said,  'I  send  him  back,  not  as  a 
servant,  but  above  a  servant,  a  brother  beloved; 
receive  him  as  myself.'  '  He  quoted  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States,  the  article  commanding 
that  fugitive  slaves  should  be  delivered  back  to 
their  masters;  in  reply  I  quoted  from  Deuteronomy 
the  "Higher  Law,"  "Thou  shalt  not  deliver  unto 
his  master  the  servant  which  is  escaped  from 
his  master  unto  thee. "  He  quoted  from  the 
great  speech  of  the  magnificent  Webster  in  the 
Senate,  March  7,  1850,  in  which  he  urged  all 
good  citizens  to  obey  the  Fugitive  Slave  Law  "with 
alacrity."  Waxing  hot,  I  quoted  from  Beecher: 


30  Lights  and  Shadows 

As  to  those  provisions  which  concern  aid  to  fugitive 
slaves,  may  God  do  so  to  us,  yea  and  more  also,  if  we 
do  not  spurn  them  as  we  would  any  other  mandate  of 
Satan!  If  in  God's  providence  fugitives  ask  bread 
or  shelter,  raiment  or  conveyance  at  my  hands,  my 
own  children  shall  lack  bread  ere  they;  my  own  flesh 
shall  sting  with  cold  ere  they  shall  lack  raiment.  And 
whatsoever  defense  I  would  put  forth  for  mine  own 
children,  that  shall  these  poor,  despised,  persecuted 
creatures  have  at  my  hands  and  on  the  road.  The 
man  that  would  do  otherwise,  that  would  obey  this 
law  to  the  peril  of  his  soul  and  the  loss  of  his  man 
hood,  were  he  brother,  son,  or  father,  shall  never 
pollute  my  hand  with  grasp  of  hideous  friendship, 
nor  cast  his  swarthy  shadow  athwart  my  threshold! 

The  lieutenant  finally  cited  the  examples  of 
''those  glorious  southern  patriots  who  led  the  re 
bellion  against  England  during  the  first  American 
Confederacy,"  Washington,  Patrick  Henry,  Madi 
son,  Jefferson,  "every  one  a  slaveholder,"  he 
proudly  exclaimed.  I  happened  to  be  cognizant  of 
their  views,  and  responded  with  some  vehemence : 
"But  Washington's  hands  were  tied  so  that  he 
could  not  free  slaves  till  his  death.  He  said 
it  was  among  his  first  wishes  to  see  some  plan 
adopted  for  putting  an  end  to  slavery.  Patrick 
Henry  declared,  'I  will  not,  I  cannot  justify  it/ 
Madison  expressed  strongly  his  unwillingness  to 
admit  in  the  national  Constitution  'the  idea  that 


In  Confederate  Prisons  31 

can  hold  property  in  man. "  In  a  rather  loud 
voice  I  quoted  Jefferson,  who,  in  view  of  our 
inconsistency  in  violating  the  "self-evident  truth" 
that  "all  men  are  created  equal,"  solemnly  af 
firmed,  "/  tremble  for  my  country,  when  I  remem 
ber  that  God  is  just,  and  that  his  justice  cannot  sleep 
forever!'11  I  had  some  reputation  as  an  elocutionist 
in  those  days,  and  Sergeant  Reed,  who  was  listen 
ing  with  open  mouth,  broke  in  with,  "I'll  be 
hanged,  Colonel,  if  you  warn't  cut  out  for  a  preach 
er!  By—  I  should  like  to  hear  you  preach." 
The  best  reply  I  could  make  was:  "You'll  un 
doubtedly  be  hanged  sometime;  and  if  I  were  a 
minister,  nothing  would  give  me  more  satisfac 
tion  than  to  be  present  at  your  execution  and 
preach  your  funeral  sermon. "  He  replied:  "  Now, 
Colonel,  you  don't  mean  that.  You  don't  think 
I'll  ever  be  hanged!" — "Indeed  I  do,  if  you  don't 
stop  your  profanity  and  general  cussedness. " — 
"  I'll  be  hanged,  if  I  will, "  was  his  last  word  to  me. 


CHAPTER  III 


At      Staunton — Thence      to     Waynesboro,     Meachara's,     and 
Richmond. 


AT  Staunton  we  got  a  little  more  light  on  the 
value  of  Confederate  paper.  A  chivalrous  surgeon 
who  accompanied  the  provost  guard  (Fontleroy, 
I  think,  was  his  name1)  politely  invited  Captain 
Dickerman  of  the  26th  Massachusetts  and  myself 
to  take  breakfast  with  him  in  a  restaurant.  We 
needed  no  urging.  The  Provost  Marshal  gave 
consent.  The  saloon  was  kept  by  a  negro  named 
Jackson.  His  entire  stock  of  provisions  consisted 
of  nine  eggs,  the  toughest  kind  of  neck  beef,  bread 
and  salt,  coffee  very  weak,  butter  very  strong.  As 
we  sat  waiting,  the  doctor  remarked  with  a  lordly 
air  that  under  ordinary  circumstances  he  would  not 
deign  to  eat  with  Yankees.  I  answered  good- 
naturedly:  "I'm  as  much  ashamed  as  you  can  be; 
and  if  you'll  never  tell  of  it,  /  won't ! "  The  food, 

1  Dr.  Fontleroy  was  a  brother  of  Mrs.  Major  Whittlesey,  one 
of  my  fellow  professors,  instructor  in  military  tactics,  at  Cornell 
University.  Whittlesey  was  a  graduate  of  West  Point,  and, 
while  there,  had  had  cadet  U.  S.  Grant  under  his  command! 

32  . 


In  Confederate  Prisons  33 

notwithstanding  its  toughness,  rapidly  disappeared. 
Near  the  last  mouthful  the  doctor  said:  "You  two 
will  have  to  pay  for  this  breakfast,  for  I've  no 
money."  I  had  fifteen  Confederate  dollars  re 
maining  of  twenty  which  I  had  received  for  a  five- 
dollar  greenback  at  Tom's  Brook,  and  I  answered: 
"Give  yourself  no  anxiety;  I'll  foot  the  bill." — 
"Well,  Jackson,"  said  I  to  the  sable  proprietor, 
"what's  the  damage?"  He  replied,  "I  shan't 
charge  you-ones  full  price.  Let's  see !  Beef,  seven ; 
eggs,  two — nine;  coffee,  three — twelve;  bread  and 
butter,  three — fifteen;  three  of  you — forty-five. 
I'll  call  it  only  thirty-six  dollars!"  I  paid  my 
fifteen;  Captain  Dickerman  pleaded  poverty;  and 
the  dignified  doctor,  who  had  so  cordially  invited 
us  to  partake  of  his  hospitality,  promised  the 
disappointed  Jackson  that  he  would  pay  the  bal 
ance  at  some  future  day  ("the  futurest  kind  of  a 
day,"  was  added  in  an  undertone). 

Rejoining  the  three  or  four  hundred  prisoners, 
we  found,  besides  the  Confederate  guards,  a  great 
crowd  of  spectators  swarming  around  us.  One 
of  them,  a  fine-looking  young  man,  wearing  the 
blue  uniform  of  a  United  States  captain,  made 
his  way  through  the  group,  and  handed  me  a 
twenty-dollar  Confederate  bill!  The  following 
dialogue  ensued: 


34  Lights  and  Shadows 

"Here,  Colonel,  take  that." 

"  I  thank  you  much.  Who  are  you,  so  kind  to  a 
stranger  and  an  enemy?" 

"I'm  one  whom  you  Yanks  would  hang,  if  you 
could  catch  me." 

"Why  so?    Who  are  you?" 

"I'm  one  of  Morgan's  guerrillas;  wouldn't  you 
hang  me?" 

"I  think  I  should,  if  you  had  much  of  this  stuff 
about  you"  (holding  up  the  twenty-dollar  bill); 
"I've  just  paid  fifteen  Confederate  dollars  for  an 
imaginary  breakfast." 

"Good  for  you,  Colonel.  Here,  take  another 
twenty.  Now  you've  forty.  That'll  pay  for  an 
imaginary  dinner.  Good-bye,  Colonel!  I  have 
an  engagement — to  meet  some  of  your  cavalry. 
Remember,  Morgan's  guerrillas  are  not  rascals, 
but  gentlemen.  Good-bye!"  He  vanished. 

About  noon  those  of  us  who  appeared  unable  to 
march  farther  were  put  on  top  of  freight  cars,  and 
carried  about  a  dozen  miles  east  to  Waynesboro. 
Here  the  railway  crosses  a  stream,  which  encircles 
a  little  island  just  north  of  the  bridge.  The 
majority  had  to  walk.  At  dusk  that  Sunday 
evening  all  had  come.  They  put  us  on  the  island 
carefully  guarded  on  all  sides.  Never  was  I  more 
thankful.  I  had  had  something  good  to  eat  at 


In  Confederate  Prisons  35 

Staunton;  had  got  rested  riding  on  the  roof  of  the 
car;  and  I  had  my  overcoat.  Davy  Crockett 
preferred  a  heap  of  chestnut  burs  for  a  pillow; 
but  I  followed  the  patriarch's  example  and  chose  a 
flat  stone.  People  never  allowed  me  to  sing;  but 
I  dropped  asleep  repeating  the  stanza  in  Mrs. 
Adams's  exquisite  hymn. 

Though,  like  the  wanderer, 

The  sun  gone  down, 
Darkness  be  over  me, 

My  rest  a  stone, 
Yet  in  my  dreams  I'd  be 
Nearer,  my  God,  to  thee! 

Towards  midnight  the  cold  became  so  keen  that  I 
rose  and  went  to  the  side  of  a  flickering  fire.  Here 
excessive  misery  was  for  a  moment  hardening  the 
hearts  it  should  have  softened.  Several  prisoners 
were  quarreling  for  a  position  nearest  the  embers, 
each  angrily  claiming  that  he  had  brought  the 
fagots  that  were  burning!  Two  or  three  hours 
later  several  of  us  attempted  to  slip  past  the 
sentries  in  the  darkness,  but  were  stopped  before 
we  reached  the  water. 

At  earliest  streak  of  dawn  we  were  marched 
away.  About  two  miles  brought  us  to  the  Blue 
Ridge  where  the  railroad  tunnel  pierces  its  found- 


36  Lights  and  Shadows 

ations.  We  toiled  up  and  on  in  time  to  see  the  sun 
rise.  An  ocean  of  fog  lay  around  us.  Never  shall 
we  forget  how  royally  the  King  of  Day  scaled  the 
great  wall  that  seemed  to  hem  in  on  every  side  the 
wide  valley,  and  how  the  sea  of  mist  and  cloud  visi 
bly  fled  before  the  inrolling  flood  of  light,  unveiling 
green  and  yellow  fields,  flocks  and  herds,  dark  wood 
lands,  dwellings  yet  asleep  in  peace  and  plenty, 
here  and  there  the  silver  thread  of  a  winding 
stream  with  lakes  that  mirrored  the  sky,  and 
yonder  the  long  stretches  of  those  titanic  fortifi 
cations  encompassing  all.  We  were  reminded 
of  Shakespeare's  sunrise: 

Full  many  a  glorious  morning  have  I  seen 
Flatter  the  mountain  tops  with  sovereign  eye, 
Kissing  with  golden  face  the  meadows  green, 
Gilding  pale  streams  with  heavenly  alchemy. 

At  that  instant  a  train  of  cars  from  Charlottes- 
ville  came  sliding  along,  and  shot 

Into  the  tunnel,  like  a  lightning  wedge 

By  great  Thor  hammers  driven  through  the  rock ! 

The  scene  startled  us  by  its  sublimity,  and  for  a 
few   minutes   the   hungry   forgot    their   craving, 
the   footsore  their  pain,  the  hopeless   their  de 
spair. 
That  day's  march,  though  not  so  long  was  as 


In  Confederate  Prisons  37 

severe  as  any;  we  were  exhausted.  Private  Dolan, 
Co.  K,  1 59th  N.  Y.,  was  barefoot.  His  feet  were 
blistered  and  bleeding.  I  begged  the  commander  of 
the  provost  guard,  Captain  Haslett,  to  allow  him 
to  get  into  an  ambulance.  My  request  was  not 
granted.  But  we  soon  afterwards  passed  a  large 
mansion  in  front  of  which  were  several  girls  and 
women  apparently  making  fun  of  the  unwashed 
"Yank"  and  evidently  enjoying  the  spectacle. 
We  were  halted  just  as  Dolan  came  limping  along 
supported  on  one  side  by  a  stronger  comrade. 
They  saw  his  miserable  plight,  his  distress,  his 
swollen  feet,  and  they  heard  of  the  stern  com 
mand  to  shoot  any  prisoner  who  fell  out  or  lagged 
behind.  Their  faces  changed.  With  tears  one 
or  two  implored  the  Captain  to  let  him  ride  in 
the  ambulance.  He  yielded  to  their  entreaties. 
Southern  ladies  almost  always  seemed  handsome  to 
us,  but  these  in  my  memory  have  the  fairest  faces. 
I  thought  of  Lady  Clare  in  Marmion,  and  the 
words  still  recur : 

O  Woman!  in  our  hours  of  ease, 
Uncertain,  coy,  and  hard  to  please, 
And  variable  as  the  shade 
By  the  light  quivering  aspen  made; 
When  pain  and  anguish  wring  the  brow. 
A  ministering  angel  thou! 


38  Lights  and  Shadows 

Two  miles  before  we  reached  our  temporary 
destination,  Meacham's  Station,  my  own  strength 
utterly  failed.  I  had  borne  up  so  long,  partly 
to  set  an  example  of  cheerful  endurance,  and 
partly  from  something  like  Mark  Tapley's  pride 
at  coming  out  strong  and  jolly  under  the  most 
depressing  circumstances.  I  lay  beside  the  road, 
remarking  to  Captain  Haslett,  who  immediately 
came  riding  to  the  spot,  "Captain,  here's  a  fine 
chance  to  try  your  marksmanship;  I  can't  march 
any  further;  shan't  try  to." — "Colonel,"  he 
replied  with  something  of  pity  in  his  tone  and 
manner,  "I'm  sorry  to  see  you  so  used  up.  I'm 
sorry  to  be  obliged  to  march  you  prisoners  so  hard. 
I  have  to  keep  out  of  the  way  of  your  damned 
cavalry.  You  may  get  into  the  ambulance." 
So  into  the  ambulance  I  climbed  with  some  diffi 
culty,  and  immediately  commenced  my  free 
masonry  on  the  driver.  He  responded  to  the  signs. 
He  proved  to  -be  an  acquaintance  of  the  Redwoods, 
a  family  in  Mobile,  one  of  whom  had  been  a  class 
mate  of  mine  at  Yale.  He  gave  me  some  nice 
milk  and  some  fine  wheat  bread.  "As  a  Mason, " 
said  he,  "I'll  feed  you;  share  the  last  crumb  with 
you;  but  as  a  Confederate  soldier  I'll  fight  you  till 
the  last  drop  of  blood  and  the  last  ditch." — "I 
hardly  know  which  to  admire  most,  your  spunk 


In  Confederate  Prisons  39 

or  your  milk,"  I  replied.  Thereupon  he  gave  me 
another  drink,  and  insisted  on  my  imbibing  a  little 
of  what  he  called  " apple-jack."  I  was  a  "tee 
totaler";  but  thinking  the  occasion  warranted, 
I  "smiled"  upon  it,  "strictly  as  a  medicine!" 
"Apple-jack"  seemed  to  me  the  same  thing  as 
"Jersey  lightning."  He  became  quite  friendly, 
but  was  horribly  profane.  "Look  here,"  said  he, 
"you  seem  to  be  a  sort  of  Christian ;  cuss  me  if  you 
don't!  What  in  h — 1  are  you  Yanks  all  comin' 
down  here  for?" — "You  have  a  gift  at  swearing," 
I  said;  "did  you,  among  your  other  oaths,  ever 
swear  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States?"— "Well,  yes."— "That's  what's  the 
matter  with  us,"  I  said,  "we're  keeping  our  oaths 
and  you  are  breaking  yours. "  "To  h — 1  with  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States !  Our  first  duty 
is  to  our  own  State.  We've  a  right  to  be  an 
independent  nation,  and  we  will.  I'm  a  guerrilla. 
If  our  armies  are  defeated,  I'll  fight  you  on  my  own 
hook.  I'll  fire  on  you  from  behind  every  tree 
and  every  rock.  I'll  assassinate  every  invader.  I 
want  you  to  remember  that  I'm  a  guerrilla." — "I 
like  your  spirits, "  I  said.  "They  are  worthy  of  a 
better  cause. "-—" Take  another  swallow  of  'em," 
he  replied,  handing  me  the  canteen.  I  toasted 
him:  "Here's  hoping  you  gorillas  will  outlive  the 


40  Lights  and  Shadows 

Southern  Confederacy!" — "A  d — d  equivocal 
sentiment/'  observed  my  fire-eating,  fire-drinking 
Masonic  brother;  "but  here  we  are  at  Meacham's 
Station.  Good-bye,  Yank!" 

After  our  nineteen  miles'  march  it  was  a  most 
welcome  relief  to  be  placed  on  platform  cars, 
though  packed  so  closely  that  we  could  hardly  stir. 
We  objected  that  the  cars  had  no  tops.  "All 
the  better  opportunity  to  study  astronomy," 
they  replied.— "The  cars  have  no  sides  to  keep 
off  the  wind. "  "  The  scenery  is  magnificent,"  they 
rejoined,  "and  they'll  answer  for  'observation 
cars';  you  have  an  unobstructed  view. "-—"But 
the  nights  are  growing  cold.  "•  "You'll  keep  warm 
by  contact  with  each  other."  Mad  at  this 
mockery,  hungry,  half-frozen,  squeezed  like  fish 
in  a  basket,  we  took  little  note  of  scenery  or  stars ; 
but  it  was  a  comfort  to  believe  that  our  discomfort 
was  caused  by  the  rapid  advance  of  Sheridan's 
cavalry. 

More  dead  than  alive,  though  hardly  dead 
enough  to  bury,  having  been  jolted  along  all  the 
afternoon  and  all  night,  we  reached  Richmond 
about  sunrise,  Tuesday,  September  27th.  Number 
ing  now  nearly  four  hundred  we  were  escorted 
through  the  streets  to  the  notorious  Libby  prison 
and  halted  in  front.  The  Union  officers  inside 


In  Confederate  Prisons  41 

thronged  the  windows  to  see  us  come.  On  every 
face  was  a  sad,  despondent,  pitying  look,  the  most 
discouraging  sight  I  ever  saw.  No  smiles  there 
nor  among  us.  Conspicuous  among  them  was  the 
sorrowful  countenance  of  Lieut. -Col.  Charles  H. 
Hooper  of  the  24th  Massachusetts  Infantry,  with 
his  long  handsome  auburn  beard.  Some  one  inside 
whispered  loud  enough  for  several  of  our  "Four 
Hundred  "  to  hear,  "  Hide  your  greenbacks ! "  We 
passed  the  word  down  the  column,  "Hide  your 
greenbacks!" 

A  few  minutes  revealed  its  significance.  We 
were  taken  in  a  body  in  upon  the  lower  floor. 
There  Major  Nat.  Turner,  prison  inspector, 
cousin  of  the  celebrated  Dick  Turner  of  unlovely 
reputation,  made  us  a  speech. 

You  will  empty  your  pockets  of  all  valuables.  Such 
as  are  not  contraband  of  war,  you  will  be  allowed  to 
retain.  You  will  deliver  up  all  your  Federal  money. 
An  equivalent  amount  in  Confederate  money  will  be 
given  you  in  instalments  from  time  to  time,  or  the 
whole  will  be  returned  to  you  when  you  are  exchanged. 
You  will  turn  pockets  inside  out.  If  you  attempt 
to  conceal  anything,  it  will  be  confiscated 

We  were  made  to  step  forward  singly,  and  were 
searched.  Our  coats  and  vests  were  taken  off, 
also  our  boots  and  shoes ;  and  a  Confederate  officer 


42  In  Confederate  Prisons 

felt  very  carefully  of  all  our  clothing  to  make  sure 
that  nothing  was  hidden.  I  "remembered  to  for 
get'*  that  I  had  two  ten-dollar  greenbacks  com 
pressed  into  a  little  wad  in  one  corner  of  my  watch 
fob;  and  that  corner  escaped  inspection.  Dick 
Turpin  never  was  the  richer  for  that  money. 
They  examined  suspiciously  a  pocket  edition  of 
the  New  Testament  in  the  original  Greek;  but  I 
assured  them  it  was  not  some  diabolical  Yankee 
cipher,  and  they  allowed  me  to  keep  it.  I  made 
the  most  of  my  freemasonry,  and  they  permitted 
me  to  retain  my  overcoat.  One  of  our  prisoners, 
it  was  whispered,  had  secretly  stuffed  $1300  in 
greenbacks  into  his  canteen,  but  all  canteens  were 
taken  from  us  as  contraband  of  war,  and  nobody 
but  "Uncle  Sam"  profited  by  the  concealment. 
Having  "gone  through"  us,  they  incarcerated 
the  officers  in  one  room,  the  enlisted  men  in 
another. 


CHAPTER  IV 

At  Libby — Thence  to  Clover,  Danville,  Greensboro,  and  Salis 
bury — Effort  to  Pledge  us  not  to  Attempt  Escape. 

THE  two  rooms  at  Libby  adjoined  each  other 
on  the  second  floor,  but  a  solid  brick  wall  was 
between  them.  When  we  entered,  about  a  hun 
dred  and  fifty  officers  were  already  there.  The 
first  thing  that  attracted  my  attention  was  an 
officer  putting  a  loaf  of  bread  through  a  small 
hole  in  the  partition  where  one  or  two  bricks 
were  removable.  He  was  feeding  a  hungry 
prisoner.  A  cap  or  hat  nicely  concealed  the 
perforation. 

Libby  has  a  hard  name,  but  it  was  the  most 
comfortable  of  the  six  Confederate  prisons  of 
which  I  saw  the  interior.  With  all  his  alleged 
brutal  severity,  of  which  I  saw  no  manifestation, 
and  his  ravenous  appetite  for  greenbacks,  for 
which  we  could  not  blame  him,  Dick  Turner 
seemed  an  excellent  disciplinarian.  Everything 
went  like  clockwork.  We  knew  what  to  expect 
or  rather  what  not  to  expect,  and  when!  My 

43 


44  Lights  and  Shadows 

diary  for  Wednesday,  September  28,   1864,  the 
day  after  our  arrival,  reads  as  follows: 

The  issue  to  us  daily  is 

One  gill  of  boiled  beans, 
One  quarter  gill  of  bean  broth, 
One  half  loaf  of  soft  bread, 
(Four  ounces  meat)  and 
A  little  salt. 

There  was  one  inestimable  boon,  a  copious 
supply  of  pure  water. 

There  were  at  this  time  no  panes  of  glass,  in 
fact  no  sashes,  in  the  windows,  and  the  wind  swept 
freely  through.  The  nights  were  becoming  cold. 
Confederate  sentries  were  on  the  lower  floor  and 
outside.  They  kept  up  a  custom  rather  unusual, 
I  think,  during  the  war,  of  calling  out  in  sing-song 
tones  every  hour  the  number  of  the  post  and  the 
time,  with  occasional  variations;  e.  g.:  "Post 
number  fourteen,  two  o'clock,  and  all's  well." 
Then  the  next  sentinel  would  sing  out,  "Post  num 
ber  fifteen,  two  o'clock,  and  all's  well."  Then  the 
melodious  voice  of  the  next,  farther  away  and 
sadly  unorthodox,  "Post  number  sixteen,  two 
o'clock,  and  cold  as  h — 1!" 

Except  one  or  two  rickety  tables  and  two  or 
three  old  chairs,  there  was  no  furniture  in  the 
prison.  Some  of  the  officers  had  contrived  to  save 


In  Confederate  Prisons  45 

a  little  money  when  searched,  and  with  money  it 
was  possible  to  procure  small  articles  slyly  smuggled 
in  contrary  to  orders;  but  most  of  us  were  dis 
posed  to  sing  with  old  Isaac  Watts, 

Dear  Lord,  and  shall  we  ever  live 
At  this  poor  dying  rate? 

From  the  rear  windows  we  were  occasionally 
entertained  with  the  sight  of  exploding  shells, 
which  the  indefatigable  Grant  was  daily  projecting 
towards  Richmond.  Particularly  was  this  the 
case  on  the  thirtieth  of  the  month,  when  the  boys 
in  blue  captured  Fort  Harrison,  and  the  next  day 
when  the  Confederates  made  several  gallant  but 
unsuccessful  attempts  to  retake  it.  At  such  times 
we  could  see  some  of  the  steeples  or  high  roofs  in 
Richmond  thronged  with  non-combatants  gazing 
anxiously  towards  Petersburg.  The  belief  that 
our  prison  was  undermined,  a  vast  quantity  of 
gunpowder  stored  in  the  cellar,  and  that  Dick 
Turner  had  threatened  and  was  desperate  enough 
to  blow  us  all  into  eternity  in  case  of  a  sudden  dash 
of  our  cavalry  into  Richmond,  somewhat  marred 
the  satisfaction  with  which  we  contemplated  the 
evident  progress  of  the  siege.  We  could  sym 
pathize  with  the  Philadelphia  Friend,  who  said 
to  his  wife  on  the  introduction  of  gun-cotton, 


46  Lights  and  Shadows 

"What  comfort  can  thee  take,  even  when  sitting 
in  thy  easy  chair,  when  thee  knows  not  but  the 
very  cushion  underneath  thee  is  an  enormous 
bomb-shell,  ready  upon  the  slightest  concussion 
to  blow  thee  to  everlasting  glory?" 

At  three  o'clock,  Sunday  morning,  October  2d, 
we  were  roused  by  the  entry  of  armed  men  with 
lanterns.  They  furnished  each  of  us  with  a  dirty 
haversack  containing  what  they  called  two  days' 
rations  of  corn  bread  and  meat.  Then  they  moved 
us  single-file  down  stairs.  As  we  passed,  they 
took  from  each  his  blanket,  even  those  the  officers 
had  just  bought  and  paid  for.  If  we  expostulated, 
we  were  told  we  were  going  to  a  place  where  we 
should  not  need  blankets!  For  my  freemasonry 
or  some  other  unexpressed  reason,  they  allowed 
me  to  pass,  wearing  my  overcoat.  Then  they  took 
us  by  bridge  across  the  James  River,  packed  us  in 
box-cars  on  the  railway,  forty  to  sixty  in  each  car, 
and  started  the  train  southwest  towards  Danville. 

The  road-bed  was  bad  and  the  fences  on  either 
side  were  gone.  We  made  but  four  or  five  miles 
an  hour.  One  of  our  officers  declared  that  they 
kept  a  boy  running  ahead  of  the  engine  with  ham 
mer  and  nails  to  repair  the  track!  also  that  they 
put  the  cow-catcher  on  behind  the  last  car  to  pre 
vent  cattle  from  running  over  the  train !  At  nine 


In  Confederate  Prisons  47 

o'clock  in  the  evening  we  reached  a  place  called 
Clover.  We  passed  the  night  in  Clover!  on  the 
bank  beside  the  railroad,  where  we  studied 
astronomy!  and  meditated! 

Next  morning  they  repacked  us,  and  we  were 
transported  seventy  miles  farther    to    Danville. 
My  memorandum  book  mentions  a  conversation  I 
had  on  the  way  with  a  very  young  and  handsome 
rebel,  one  of  the  guard.     He  was  evidently  in 
genuous  and  sincere,  pious  and  lovable.     After  a 
few  pleasant  remarks  he  suddenly  asked : 
"What  are  you  Northerners  fighting  for?" 
"In  defense  of  the  Constitution  and  the  Union. 
What  are  you  fighting  for?" 

"Every  right  that  is  sacred  and  dear  to  man." 
"What  right  that  is  sacred  and  dear  to  man  had 
the  United  States  ever  violated  before  you  fired 
on  Fort  Sumter?" 

Of  course  he  fell  back  on  the  Declaration  of 
American  Independence,  that  "Governments  de 
rive  their  just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the 
governed";  also  on  the  doctrine  so  emphatically 
expressed  by  Abraham  Lincoln  in  his  speech  in 
Congress  in  1846;  viz.: 

Any  people  anywhere,  being  inclined  and  having 
the  power,  have  the  right  to  raise  up  and  shake  off 
the  existing  government,  and  form  a  new  one  that 


48  Lights  and  Shadows 

suits  them  better.  This  is  a  most  valuable,  a  most 
sacred  right,  a  right  which  we  hope  and  believe  is  to 
liberate  the  world.  Nor  is  this  right  confined  to  cases 
in  which  the  whole  people  of  an  existing  government 
may  choose  to  exercise  it.  Any  portion  of  such  people, 
that  can,  may  revolutionize  and  make  their  own  of  as 
much  territory  as  they  inhabit. 

We  arrived  at  Danville  at  noon.  A  heavy  rain 
began  to  fall.  Having  been  two  days  without 
opportunity  to  wash,  we  were  drenched  for  an  hour 
or  two  by  the  sweet  shower  that  seemed  to  pour 
from  the  open  windows  of  heaven.  When  our 
thoughtful  guards  concluded  that  we  were  suffi 
ciently  cleansed  and  bleached,  they  sheltered  us 
by  putting  us  into  coal  cars,  where  the  black  dust 
was  an  inch  deep.  That  dust  was  fine!  but  the 
thought  seemed  to  strike  them  that  our  nicely 
laundered  garments  might  get  soiled.  So  in  half 
an  hour  they  took  us  out  and  placed  us  in  corn 
cars.  It  rather  went  against  the  grain,  but  finally 
I  sat  down  with  the  other  kernels  on  the  floor. 
The  weather  being  inclement,  they  felt  it  their 
duty  to  keep  us  in  doors,  lest  we  should  catch 
cold! 

In  these  elegant  and  commodious  vehicles  we 
were  transported  next  day  till  we  reached  Greens 
boro,  North  Carolina,  about  fifty  miles  southwest 


In  Confederate  Prisons  49 

from  Danville.  Disgorged  like  poor  old  Jonah  after 
three  days*  living  burial,  we  were  placed  in  the 
beautiful  open  square,  and  never  before  did  air, 
earth,  trees,  and  skies  seem  lovelier.  Here  they 
gave  each  of  us  three  horny  crackers,  "rebel  hard 
tack,  "  out  of  which  some  of  us  carved  ringer  rings 
that  might  have  passed  for  bone. 

In  those  days  I  was  too  much  addicted  to  mak 
ing  public  speeches,  a  habit  which  I  had  contracted 
in  Yale  College.  On  the  edge  of  the  public  green, 
backed  by  a  hundred  prisoners,  I  was  haranguing 
a  crowd  of  curious  spectators,  telling  them  how 
abominably  we  were  treated,  exhibiting  to  them 
our  single  ration  of  flinty  biscuit,  and  consigning 
them  all  to  everlasting  perdition,  when  a  well- 
dressed  young  man  elbowed  his  way  to  me  at  the 
fence.  He  had  a  large  black  shiny  haversack 
swung  under  his  left  arm.  Patting  it  with  his 
right  hand,  he  asked: 

''Will  you  have  a  snack?" 

"A  what?"  I  answered. 

"A  snack,  a  snack,"  he  said. 

"I  don't  know  what  a  'snack*  is,  unless  it's  a 
snake.  Yes,  I  think  I  could  eat  a  copperhead— 
cooked.  Snake  for  one,  if  you  please;  well  done. " 

He  thrust  his  hand  into  his  haversack ;  took  out 
and  gave  me  the  most  delicious  sandwich  I  ever 

4 


50  Lights  and  Shadows 

tasted.  Seeing  how  I  enjoyed  it,  he  emptied 
the  satchel,  giving  all  his  food  to  my  hungry  fellow 
prisoners.  He  told  me  he  was  just  starting  on  a 
long  journey,  and  had  laid  in  a  good  stock  of 
provisions.  I  took  pains  to  write  in  my  journal 
his  name  and  residence — "George  W.  Swepson, 
Alamance,  North  Carolina.  Lives  near  the  Court 
House."  To  which  I  added  "  Vir  et  Amicus."— 
"The  blessing  of  him  that  was  ready  to  perish" 
was  upon  George  W.  Swepson. 

That  night  we  slept  again  on  the  ground  and 
without  covering  under  the  open  sky;  and  again 
several  prisoners,  Captain  Howe  and  myself  among 
them,  attempted  in  vain  to  slip  past  the  sentinels. 

Next  morning  we  reentered  the  freight  cars. 
A  twelve  hours'  ride  brought  us  at  nine  o'clock, 
Wednesday  evening,  October  5th,  to  our  destina 
tion,  Salisbury,  North  Carolina.  As  the  "Four 
Hundred"  passed  into  the  dark  enclosure,  we  were 
greeted  with  the  cry,  "Fresh  fish!  Fresh  fish!" 
which  in  those  days  announced  the  arrival  of  a 
new  lot  of  prisoners.  We  field  officers  were 
quartered  that  night  in  a  brick  building  near  the 
entrance,  where  we  passed  an  hour  of  horrors. 
We  were  attacked  by  what  appeared  to  be  an 
organized  gang  of  desperadoes,  made  up  of  thieves, 
robbers,  Yankee  deserters,  rebel  deserters,  and 


In  Confederate  Prisons  51 

villains  generally,  maddened  by  hunger,  or  bent  on 
plunder,  who  rejoiced  in  the  euphonious  appel 
lation  of  Mugger  si  We  had  been  warned  against 
them  by  kindly  disposed  guards,  and  were  not 
wholly  unprepared.  They  attacked  us  with  clubs, 
fists,  and  knives,  but  were  repeatedly  driven  off, 
pitched  headlong  downstairs.  ' '  Muggers  ! ' ' 

Salisbury  prison,  then  commonly  called  "Salis 
bury  penitentiary,"  was  in  the  general  form  of  a 
right-angled  triangle  with  base  of  thirty  or  forty 
rods,  perpendicular  eighty  or  ninety.  In  a  row 
parallel  to  the  base  and  four  or  five  rods  from  it 
were  four  empty  log  houses  with  a  space  of  about 
four  rods  between  each  two.  These,  a  story  and 
a  half  high,  had  formerly  been  negro  quarters. 
On  each  side  of  the  great  triangle  was  a  stout 
tight  board  fence  twelve  or  fifteen  feet  high. 
Some  two  or  three  feet  from  the  top  of  this,  but 
out  of  our  sight  because  on  the  other  side,  there 
was  evidently  a  board  walk,  on  which  sentinels, 
four  or  five  rods  apart,  perpetually  paced  their 
beats,  each  being  able  to  see  the  whole  inside  of 
the  enclosure.  At  each  angle  of  the  base  was  a 
shotted  field-piece  pointing  through  the  narrow 
opening.  We  could  see  that  behind  each  cannon 
there  was  a  number  of  muskets  stacked  and  vigi 
lant  soldiers  watching  every  movement  inside. 


52  Lights  and  Shadows 

Close  to  the  fence  outside  there  were  three  camps 
of  Confederates,  variously  estimated  to  contain 
from  seven  hundred  to  two  thousand  in  all. 

The  number  of  Union  officers  in  prison  after  our 
arrival  was  about  three  hundred  and  twenty;  the 
number  of  non-commissioned  officers  and  pri 
vates  was  suddenly  increased  from  about  two 
thousand  to  some  eight  thousand.  Among  these 
were  non-combatants,  refugees,  lighthouse  keepers, 
and  other  government  employees.  Albert  D. 
Richardson,  then  well-known  as  a  correspondent 
of  the  New  York  Tribune,  whose  romantic  mar 
riage  to  Abby  Sage  by  Henry  Ward  Beecher  and 
whose  tragic  death  created  a  sensation  in  the 
newspaper  world,  had  been  held  as  a  prisoner 
there  for  several  months.  He  told  us  he  had 
found  Salisbury  a  comfortable  place.  It  immedi 
ately  ceased  to  be  such. 

There  stood  the  empty  log  houses.  We  be 
sought  the  rebel  commandant,  Major  Gee,  to  allow 
us  officers  to  occupy  those  buildings.  He  said  he 
would  permit  it  on  condition  that  we  should  sign 
a  stringent  parole,  binding  us  on  our  honor  not 
to  attempt  to  escape!  We  objected  to  it  as  a 
preposterous  requirement  that,  remaining  under 
strict  guard  and  wholly  cut  off  from  communi 
cation  with  the  outside  world,  we  should  sign  such 


In  Confederate  Prisons  53 

a  pledge  as  the  only  condition  on  which  we  could 
receive  decent  shelter.  I  asked  Major  Gee  if  the 
rigor  of  our  confinement  would  be  in  any  way 
relaxed.  He  answered  bluntly,  "No."— "Well, 
where's  the  reciprocity?"  I  demanded;  "what 
are  you  giving  up?" — "Well,"  he  replied,  J*  if 
you  don't  choose  to  sign  the  parole,  you  can't 
have  the  buildings.  Other  Federal  officers  have 
not  objected  to  signing  it."  He  showed  us  the 
signature  of  Gen.  Michael  Corcoran,  who  had 
been  colonel  of  the  6gth  New  York,  was  cap 
tured  at  the  first  battle  of  Bull  Run,  was 
promoted  to  be  brigadier,  and  who  raised  the 
so-called  "Corcoran  Legion."  Our  senior  officer, 
Brig.-Gen.  Joseph  Hayes  of  the  Fifth  Corps, 
now  called  a  meeting  of  the  field  officers,  and 
submitted  the  question,  "Shall  we  sign  the  parole, 
and  so  obtain  shelter?  Or  shall  we  hold  ourselves 
free  to  escape  if  we  can,  and  so  share  the  privations 
of  our  enlisted  men,  who  have  no  bed  but  the 
ground  and  no  covering  but  the  sky?"  I  spoke 
strongly  against  making  any  promise.  We  voted 
almost  unanimously  against  it. 

General  Hayes  and  others  then  urged  upon  the 
commandant  the  absurdity  and  meanness  of 
requiring  it.  It  was  clear  to  us  and  must  have 
been  so  to  him  that  it  was  for  his  interest  to 


54  Lights  and  Shadows 

separate  the  three  or  four  hundred  officers  from 
the  thousands  of  prisoners  accustomed  to  obey 
our  orders.  He  finally  consented  that  we  should 
occupy  the  houses  without  imposing  any  con 
ditions. 

Parallel  to  the  front  of  these  buildings,  about 
five  rods  from  them  and  extending  across  the 
enclosure,  was  a  so-called  "dead  line,"  on  which 
nine  sentinels  paced  their  beats.  Another  "dead 
line"  about  four  rods  from  the  high  fence  paral 
leled  the  whole  length  of  each  side  of  the  prison. 
It  was  death  to  come  near  these. 

About  eighty  officers  were  assigned  to  each  of  the 
four  houses.  In  each  an  officer  was  elected  to  serve 
as  house-commissary.  His  duty  was  to  receive  the 
rations  from  Lieutenant-Colonel  Hooper,  already 
mentioned,  acting  as  commissary-general,  to  whom 
the  Confederate  authorities  delivered  them  in 
bulk.  The  house-commissary  distributed  the  food 
and  acted  as  agent  representing  the  house  in  all 
communications  with  Confederate  headquarters. 
Col.  Gilbert  G.  Prey  of  the  iO4th  N.  Y.  Vols. 
was  elected  commissary  of  house  number  one; 
Capt.  D.  Tarbell,  of  Groton,  N.  Y.,  commissary 
of  house  number  two;  Lieutenant  Reilly  of 
Philadelphia,  of  house  number  three;  and  I  of 
house  four. 


In  Confederate  Prisons  55 

Each  house  contained  but  two  rooms,  a  lower 
and  an  upper,  both  empty,  for  the  most  part  with 
out  glass  windows  or  even  sashes;  the  spaces 
between  the  crooked  logs  not  stopped  up;  a  single 
fireplace  in  each  house,  but  not  half  enough  wood 
to  keep  a  blaze ;  without  tables,  benches,  or  chairs ; 
without  cooking  utensils ;  without  table,  knife,  fork, 
spoon,  or  plate;  often  without  cup  or  dish;  without 
blankets,  or  any  clothing  but  the  scantiest  sum 
mer  outfit;  without  books  or  papers;  without 
water  sufficient  for  washing,  or  soap,  if  we  could 
possibly  get  water;  we  were  in  a  sorry  plight  as 
the  nights  grew  colder.  And  if  the  prospect  was 
bad  for  us,  how  much  worse  for  our  soldiers  across 
the  "dead  line,"  who  had  no  shelter,  hardly  a 
scrap  of  blanket!  Every  rain  made  their  beds 
a  pool  or  mass  of  mire.  It  is  not  pleasant,  but  it 
is  a  duty  to  record  some  of  the  shadows  of  our 
prison  life,  "lest  we  forget. " 

On  the  open  ground  outside  of  what  was  called 
the  "hospital,"  October  8th,  a  sergeant-major 
was  found  dead;  October  Qth,  two  private  sol 
diers;  October  I3th,  five;  October  I4th,  two; 
October  i6th,  eleven;  October  I7th,  seven;  October 
1 8th,  nine.  We  could  tell  how  severe  the  weather 
had  been  at  night  by  the  number  found  dead  in 
the  morning. 


56  Lights  and  Shadows 

Not  far  from  the  prison  enclosure  was  an 
abundance  of  growing  timber.  More  than  once 
I  besought  Major  Gee  to  allow  our  men  to  go, 
under  guard  on  parole,  to  get  wood  for  fires  and 
for  barracks.  He  refused.  He  said  he  was 
intending  to  build  barracks  for  the  prisoners  as 
soon  as  he  could  procure  lumber.  I  presume  that 
he  was  sincere  in  this.  I  asked  in  vain  for  blankets 
for  the  men;  for  tents,  but  none  came  till  De 
cember,  and  then  but  one  "Sibley"  tent  and  one 
"A"  tent  per  hundred  prisoners,  not  enough  for 
one-third  of  them. 

We  procured  water  from  a  deep  well  on  the 
grounds.  The  supply  was  so  scanty  for  the 
thousands  of  prisoners  that  it  was  always  exhausted 
before  sunrise.  Soon  after  we  came  the  Confeder 
ates  commenced  digging  two  new  wells.  At  their 
rate  of  progress  we  reckoned  it  would  take  several 
months  to  finish  either. 

My  memorandum  book  shows  that  the  issue 
of  food  daily  at  Salisbury,  though  sometimes 
partly  withheld,  was  for  each  prisoner  "one  half 
loaf  of  soft  bread;  two,  three,  four,  or  five  ounces 
of  meat;  a  gill  of  boiled  rice,  and  a  little  salt."  I 
have  no  doubt  that  Major  Gee  meant  to  deal 
fairly  with  us ;  but  he  was  unprepared  for  the  ava 
lanche  that  had  descended  upon  him.  We  are  too 


In  Confederate  Prisons  57 

much  in  the  habit  of  blaming  individual  com 
batants  for  severities  and  cruelties  that  are  inher 
ent  in  the  whole  business  of  war,  either  civil  or 
international,  and  inseparable  from  it.  Said  our 
Lieut. -Gen.  S.  M.  B.  Young  at  a  banquet  in 
Philadelphia,  "War  is  necessarily  cruel;  it  is 
kill  and  burn,  and  burn  and  kill,  and  again 
kill  and  burn."  The  truth  was  more  bluntly 
expressed  by  the  British  Rear- Admiral  Lord 
Fisher,  now  the  first  sea  lord  of  the  British 
Admiralty : 

Humanizing  war?  [said  he];  you  might  as  well  talk 
of  humanizing  hell !  When  a  silly  ass  got  up  at  the 
first  Hague  Peace  Conference  in  1899,  and  talked 
about  the  "amenities  of  warfare"  and  putting  your 
prisoners'  feet  in  warm  water  and  giving  them  gruel, 
my  reply,  I  regret  to  say,  was  considered  brutally 
unfit  for  publication.  As  if  war  could  be  "  civilized"  ! 
If  I  am  in  command  when  war  breaks  out,  I  shall 
issue  as  my  orders,  "  The  essence  of  war  is  violence. 
Moderation  is  imbecility.  Hit  first,  hit  hard,  hit 
everywhere" 

In  this  light  we  may  view  more  charitably  the 
slaying,  on  the  i6th  of  October  at  Salisbury,  of 
Second  Lieutenant  John  Davis  of  the  I55th  N.  Y. 
It  was  a  Sunday  morning  about  half-past  ten 
o'clock.  One  of  our  fellow  prisoners,  Rev.  Mr. 
Emerson,  chaplain  of  a  Vermont  regiment,  had 


58  Lights  and  Shadows 

circulated  notice  that  he  would  conduct  religious 
services  in  the  open  air  between  houses  number 
three  and  four.  The  officers  were  beginning  to  as 
semble  when  the  sharp  report  of  a  musket  near  by 
was  heard.  Rushing  to  the  spot,  we  found  the  lieu 
tenant  lying  on  his  back  dying  at  the  "dead  line. " 
The  sentinel  on  the  fence,  a  mere  boy,  had  fired 
upon  him,  and  was  now  reloading.  One  of  our 
number,  Captain  William  Cook,  unable  to  restrain 
his  anger,  hurled  a  large  stone  at  him.  But  the 
hundreds  of  Confederates  in  the  camps  just  beyond 
the  fence  had  sprung  to  arms  at  the  sound  of  the 
firing;  the  top  of  the  fence  was  being  lined  with 
soldiers;  and  the  vigilant  cannoneers  at  the  angles 
were  training  their  artillery  upon  our  dense  mass 
of  officers.  We  prisoners  regarded  the  shooting 
as  a  brutal  murder.  The  religious  exercises  were 
turned  into  a  funeral  service.  Chaplain  Emerson 
prayed,  "O  God!  our  only  refuge  in  this  dark  hour, 
avenge  the  atrocious  murder  of  our  beloved  com 
rade;  protect  that  widow  so  cruelly  robbed  of  one 
dearer  to  her  than  life;  and  especially  grant  that 
this  accursed  Confederacy  may  speedily  sink  into 
its  native  hell ! "  His  text  was  from  Isaiah  viii,  12 : 
"Say  ye  not  a  Confederacy!"  Next  day  I  asked 
the  officer  of  the  guard  if  any  punishment  was 
to  be  inflicted  upon  the  sentinel.  He  answered: 


In  Confederate  Prisons  59 

"No;   we    don't    punish    men    for    doing    their 
duty." 

So  vitally  important  is  the  point  of  view  in 
deciding  upon  the  right  or  wrong  of  an  act. 


CHAPTER  V 

At  Salisbury — Great  Plot  to  Escape— How  Frustrated. 

WHEN  we  arrived  at  Salisbury  early  in  October, 
we  found  there  a  brave  and  sagacious  officer, 
Lieut.  Wm.  C.  Manning  of  the  2d  Massachusetts 
Cavalry.  He  told  us  he  had  been  held  as  a 
hostage  in  solitary  confinement,  and  would  have 
starved  but  for  the  rats  he  caught  and  ate.  He 
had  been  notified  that  his  own  life  depended  upon 
the  fate  of  a  person  held  in  federal  hands  as  a  spy. 
He  determined  to  attempt  an  escape.  He  was 
assigned  to  my  house.  Taking  up  a  part  of  the 
floor,  he  commenced  digging  a  tunnel.  He  wrote 
a  solemn  pledge  which  all  the  officers  in  the  house 
signed,  binding  them  not  to  divulge  the  scheme. 
The  tunnel  would  have  had  to  be  about  eight  rods 
long,  and  its  outlet  would  necessarily  have  been 
near  a  group  of  rebel  tents.  Of  course  it  would 
have  been  discovered  on  the  morning  after  its 
completion,  and  not  all  could  hope  to  find  egress 

that  way.     But  he  believed  that  his  life  was  still 

60 


In  Confederate  Prisons  61 

in  special  danger,  and  he  at  once  began  excavating. 
The  house  had  no  cellar,  but  there  was  plenty 
of  room  under  it  for  stowing  away  the  loose 
earth.  The  ground  was  not  hard,  yet  it  was  quite 
firm,  and  on  the  whole  favorable  for  such  oper 
ations.  The  work  was  progressing  finely,  till 
the  officers  were  suddenly  removed  from  Salisbury 
in  consequence  of  the  discovery  of  a  great  plot. 
I  had  become  a  good  deal  interested  in  Manning 
and  his  tunnel  plan,  and  on  the  morning  of  Wednes 
day,  October  I2th,  I  introduced  him  to  General 
Hayes,  our  senior  officer.  He  told  us  he  had  for 
several  days  been  considering  the  possibility  of 
organizing  the  three  or  four  hundred  officers,  and 
the  five  to  ten  thousand  soldiers.  He  believed 
that  by  a  simultaneous  assault  at  many  points  we 
could  seize  the  artillery,  break  the  fence,  capture 
the  three  rebel  camps,  then  arm  and  ration  this 
extemporized  army,  and  march  away.  He  showed 
us  a  good  map  of  North  Carolina.  He  invited  all 
of  the  field  officers  to  meet  that  evening  in  the 
garret  of  house  number  two.  All  of  them  accord 
ingly,  about  thirty  in  number,  were  present. 
Posting  sentinels  to  keep  out  intruders,  and  stop 
ping  the  open  windows  so  that  the  faint  light  of 
a  tallow  candle  might  not  betray  us  or  create  sus 
picion,  we  sat  down  in  the  gloom. 


62  Lights  and  Shadows 

The  general  had  modestly  absented  himself,  in 
order  that  we  might  be  uninfluenced  by  him  in 
reaching  a  decision;  but  our  first  step  was  to 
send  for  him,  and  then  insist  on  his  taking  the 
chair — the  chair,  for  we  had  but  one !  As  he  had 
made  a  careful  study  of  the  subject,  we  pressed 
him  to  give  his  views.  He  proceeded  to  state  the 
grounds  of  his  belief  that  it  was  practicable  to 
strike  an  effective  blow  for  our  liberation.  He  told 
us  that  he  had  communicated  with  a  Union  man 
outside,  and  had  learned  the  number  and  location 
of  the  Confederate  troops  we  should  be  likely  to 
encounter  on  our  march  to  East  Tennessee.  He 
explained  at  some  length  the  details  of  his  plan, 
the  obstacles  we  should  encounter,  and  how  to 
overcome  them.  I  shall  never  forget  the  conclu 
sion  of  his  speech.  These  were  almost  exactly  his 
words: 

We  must  organize;  organize  victory.  The  sooner 
we  act  the  better,  provided  we  have  a  well-arranged 
plan.  We  can  capture  this  town,  ration  our  men, 
provide  them  with  shoes,  clothing,  and  muskets,  and 
have  a  formidable  army  right  here  at  once.  It  need 
not  take  more  than  half  a  day.  Certainly  we  can  march 
off  within  twenty-four  hours  after  the  first  blow  is 
struck,  if  we  begin  right.  The  enemy  have  a  few  guns 
on  the  hill,  but  they  are  not  "in  battery".  We  can 
take  these  and  take  the  artillery  here  right  along  with 


In  Confederate  Prisons  63 

us.  The  principal  obstacle  is  here ;  make  the  beginning 
right;  master  these  prisons  and  these  camps,  and  we 
are  safe.  Organize  is  the  word ;  organize.  If  any  one 
shall  betray  us,  or  aid  the  rebels,  or  be  guilty  of  rob 
bery  or  other  outrage,  I  am  in  favor  of  a  drumhead 
court  martial  and  a  summary  execution.  Now,  gentle 
men,  I  am  ready  to  serve  in  any  capacity,  whether 
to  lead  or  to  follow. 

Colonel  Ralston  of  the  24th  N.  Y.  "dismounted 
cavalry,"  as  they  were  called,  spoke  next.  He 
was  an  energetic  and  dashing  officer  who  fell  near 
me  in  an  attempt  to  break  out  of  Danville  prison 
on  the  tenth  of  the  following  December.  He 
entered  into  the  particulars  of  a  plan  of  action, 
showing  how  easy  it  would  be,  with  the  probable 
loss  of  but  few  lives,  to  capture  the  three  camps 
with  the  Salisbury  arsenal  and  the  artillery.  As 
his  particular  share  in  the  work,  he  said  he  would 
undertake  with  a  small  company  to  disarm  the 
twenty  or  thirty  sentinels  inside  the  enclosure, 
and  instantly  thereupon  to  capture  the  head 
quarters  of  Major  Gee. 

Other  officers  gave  valuable  suggestions.  Being 
called  upon  for  my  opinion,  I  spoke  of  the  duty  we 
owed  our  enlisted  men  to  extricate  them  from  their 
shocking  condition,  for  they  were  beginning  to  die 
every  night  on  the  bare  ground,  and  would  soon  be 
perishing  by  scores.  I  urged  the  effect  the  escape 


64  Lights  and  Shadows 

of  some  eight  thousand  prisoners  would  have  upon 
the  nation,  being  equivalent  to  a  great  victory; 
and,  better  than  victory,  it  would  add  so  many 
thousands  of  trained  soldiers  at  once  to  our  armies 
in  the  field.  I  insisted  that  this  success  would 
be  cheaply  bought,  even  if  it  cost,  as  it  probably 
would,  a  hundred  lives. 

Of  all  our  thirty  field  officers,  only  one  opposed 
the  scheme  (Lieut.-Col.  G ).  He  was  acknow 
ledged  to  be  brave,1  but  seemingly  lacking  in 
enterprise.  He  said  in  substance,  "I  have  care 
fully  examined  the  situation,  and  have  come  to  the 
conclusion  that  it  is  utterly  useless  to  attempt  to 
escape  by  force.  It  can't  be  done  at  present.  We 
should  be  slaughtered  by  the  hundred.  If  you  all 
vote  to  try  it,  I  will  join  you;  but  in  my  opinion 
it  is  perfect  madness." 

With  but  one  dissenting  voice  it  was  resolved  to 
go  ahead.  A  committee  of  five  was  immediately 
appointed  to  prepare  and  present  a  plan  of  action. 
This  committee  were  Colonel  Ralston;  Col.  W. 
Ross  Hartshorne,  iQOth  Pa.  (the  famous  "Bucktail 
Regiment,"  whose  first  colonel,  O'Neil,  my  Yale 
classmate,  was  killed  at  Antietam);  Col.  James 
Carle,  iQistPa.;  Major  John  Byrne,  I55th  N.  Y.; 

1  He  had  killed  three  men  with  his  sword  at  the  time  of  his 
capture. 


In  Confederate  Prisons  65 

and  myself,  Lieutenant-Colonel  of  the  I3th  Conn. 
We  were  supposed  to  be  fighting  men,  and  had  all 
been  wounded  in  battle. 

A  similar  meeting  of  field  officers  was  held  the 
following  evening.  For  two  days  the  committee  was 
almost  continually  in  consultation  with  General 
Hayes.  Great  pains  was  taken  to  have  the  plans 
fully  understood  by  all  the  officers  and  to  secure 
their  hearty  cooperation.  By  ingenious  methods 
frequent  communication  was  had  with  the  enlisted 
men  across  the  "dead  line";  sometimes  by  hurl 
ing  written  communications  ballasted  with  stone; 
several  times  by  Lieutenant  Manning  and  others 
running  swiftly  past  the  sentinels  in  the  dark ;  best 
of  all,  because  least  liable  to  discovery,  by  the 
use  of  the  deaf-and-dumb  alphabet.  We  were 
suffering  for  want  of  water,  and  several  officers  got 
permission  to  go  outside  the  enclosure  ostensibly 
to  procure  it,  but  really  to  reconnoitre. 

The  committee  reported  the  following  plan, 
which  was  unanimously  adopted: 

The  first  object  in  the  movement  being  to  get 
into  a  hand-to-hand  fight  as  soon  as  possible ;  seven 
columns,  each  several  hundred  strong,  were  to 
make  simultaneous  assaults  upon  six  or  seven 
different  points.  The  fence  being  the  first  impedi 
ment,  every  man's  haversack  and  pockets  were  to 

5 


66  Lights  and  Shadows 

be  filled  with  stones  to  keep  down  the  sentinels 
who  would  fire  on  us  from  the  top.  Some  got 
levers  to  wrench  off  boards,  others  logs  to  serve 
as  rude  battering  rams,  others  sharpened  stakes 
which  Ralston  called  "Irish  pikes,"  others  clubs, 
or  any  possible  weapon.  I  had  a  rusty  old 
bayonet. 

Major  David  Sadler,  2d  Pennsylvania  Heavy 
Artillery,  with  his  battalion  was  to  rush  and  seize 
the  cannon  and  muskets  at  the  angle  on  the  right ; 
Major  John  Byrne  and  his  column  at  the  same 
instant  were  to  pounce  upon  the  big  gun  and  mus 
kets  at  the  angle  on  our  left;  simultaneously  Colonel 
Ralston  and  his  men  are  to  dash  upon  the  nine  sen 
tinels  on  the  "dead  line"  in  front  of  the  officers' 
houses,  in  a  moment  disarming  them  and  the  nine  of 
the  relief  just  arriving ;  then  spring  to  the  assistance 
of  Major  August  Haurand  of  the  4th  N.  Y.  Cavalry 
and  his  battalion  who  are  capturing  Major  Gee's 
headquarters  and  guards  and  camp  on  our  right. 
Col.  James  Carle,  iQist  Pa.,  with  his  hundreds  is 
breaking  through  the  fence  and  capturing  the  rebel 
camp  in  rear  of  the  officers'  quarters.  Colonel,  after 
wards  General,  W.  Ross  Hartshorne  and  his  330  men 
of  the  I  QOth  Pa.  are  to  break  the  fence  just  above 
the  main  rebel  camp  which  is  on  our  left.  My  own 
column  of  about  three  hundred  men  of  the  Nine- 


In  Confederate  Prisons  67 

teenth  Corps  are  to  break  the  fence  just  below  the 
rebel  camp;  then  Hartshorne  and  I  are  to  leap  from 
opposite  sides  upon  this,  the  main  camp.  These 
seven  battalions  were  to  some  extent  organized 
with  field,  staff,  and  company  officers.  Every 
officer  and  soldier  was  to  be  on  the  qui  vive  a 
little  before  five  o'clock  in  the  morning,  watching 
intently  for  the  signal.  This  was  to  be  the  wav 
ing  of  a  fire-brand  by  General  Hayes  in  front  of 
house  number  two. 

Quite  a  number  of  officers  had  no  faith  in  the 
plot,  and  they  regarded  it  with  indifference.  A 
few  expressed  hostility  to  it.  One  captain,  who 
had  been  a  prisoner  before  and  seemed  glad 
to  have  been  captured  again,  a  bloated,  over 
grown,  swaggering,  filthy  bully,  of  course  a  cow 
ard,  formerly  a  keeper  of  a  low  groggery  and  said 
to  have  been  commissioned  for  political  reasons, 
was  repeatedly  heard  to  say  in  sneering  tones  in 
the  hearing  of  rebel  sentries,  "Some  of  our  officers 
have  got  escape  on  the  brain,"  with  other  words 
to  the  like  effect.  Colonel  Hartshorne  finally 
stopped  such  traitorous  language  by  saying  with 

tremendous  emphasis :  "  Captain  D ,  I've  heard 

a  good  deal  of  your  attempts  to  discourage  officers 
from  escaping,  and  your  loud  talk  about  officers 
having  'escape  on  the  brain.'  Now,  sir,  I  give 


68  Lights  and  Shadows 

you  notice  that  if  you're  again  guilty  of  anything 
of  the  sort,  I'LL — BREAK — YOUR  HEAD — WITH — A 
CLUB!" 

The  time  agreed  upon  for  the  seven  simultaneous 
attacks  was  about  an  hour  before  sunrise  the  morn 
ing  of  October  I5th. 

As  we  had  feared,  the  rebel  authorities,  whether 
through  suspected  treachery  or  otherwise,  got 
wind  of  our  purpose.  Towards  evening  of  Octo 
ber  1 4th  extraordinary  vigilance  on  their  part 
became  apparent.  Troops  were  paraded,  posts 
strengthened,  guards  doubled,  privileges  restricted, 
and  word  was  passed  around  in  our  hearing  that 
a  battalion  of  Confederates  had  just  arrived. 
Their  watchfulness  seemed  unrelaxed  through  the 
night.  The  shooting  of  Lieutenant  Davis  next 
morning  was  doubtless  in  obedience  to  orders  for  a 
more  rigorous  enforcement  of  rules. 

Our  outbreak  was  countermanded  and  post 
poned,  but  preparations  continued.  The  delay 
enabled  us  to  perfect  our  plans,  and  make  our 
organizations  more  complete.  The  early  morn 
ing  of  October  2Oth,  the  iQth  being  the  anniversary 
of  my  birth,  was  now  fixed  upon  for  the  "insur 
rection."  We  essayed  to  disarm  suspicion  by  an 
air  of  quiet  acquiescence  in  the  lazy  routine  of 
prison  life,  or  absorption  in  the  simplest  and  most 


In  Confederate  Prisons  69 

innocent  occupations  whenever  any  Confederate 
might  be  looking  on. 

We  recognized  united  and  instantaneous  action 
at  the  signal  on  the  part  of  three  hundred  officers 
and  several  thousand  men  as  the  most  vitally 
important  element  of  success.  It  was  necessary 
that  this  should  be  thoroughly  understood  and 
emphasized,  so  that  every  soldier  should  be  in 
perfect  readiness  at  the  critical  moment. 

Several  of  us  had  formed  a  class  for  oral  instruc 
tion  in  French.  Our  teacher  was  Captain  Cook 
of  the  Qth  U.  S.  colored  troops,  a  graduate  of  Yale. 
About  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  October  i8th, 
as  we  were  seated  on  the  ground  near  house  num 
ber  four,  loudly  imitating  Professor  Cook's  parlez- 
vous,  Lieut.  Wm.  C.  Gardner,  adjutant  of  one 
of  those  extemporized  battalions  of  prisoners, 
brought  me  a  letter  he  was  intending  to  throw 
across  the  "dead  line"  to  Sergt.  Wallace  W. Smith, 
requesting  him  to  notify  all  enlisted  men  of  the 
battalion  when  and  where  to  assemble  silently 
next  morning  in  the  dark,  how  to  arm  themselves, 
from  whom  to  take  orders,  what  signal  to  watch 
for,  and  other  important  matters.  I  glanced 
through  it,  and  immediately  said:  "You'd  better 
not  entrust  the  communication  to  so  hazardous 
a  channel;  wait  an  hour  till  I've  done  with  my 


70  Lights  and  Shadows 

French  lesson,  and  I'll  cause  it  to  be  transmitted 
by  the  deaf-and-dumb  alphabet."  If  I  recollect 
rightly,  either  Lieutenant  Tobey  or  Lieutenant 
Morton,  both  of  the  58th  Massachusetts,  was  in 
the  class,  and  promised  to  convey  the  contents  of 
the  letter  safely  across  to  the  soldiers  by  adroit 
finger  manipulation.  We  were  just  finishing  the 
French  exercise,  when  Adjutant  Gardner  came 
greatly  excited,  and  this  conversation  followed : 

"Good  God,  Colonel,  the  rebs  have  got  that 
letter !  I  tied  it  to  a  stone  and  flung  it  a  long  ways 
over  the  'dead  line'  to  Wallace  Smith.  He  ap 
peared  afraid  to  pick  it  up.  A  reb  sentinel  stepped 
away  from  his  beat  and  got  it. " 

"I  requested  you  to  wait  till  I'd  done  reciting 
French,  and  I  told  you  I'd  then  communicate  it 
by  the  deaf-and-dumb  alphabet. " 

"Well,  Colonel,  I  ought  to  have  done  so;  but  I 
was  anxious  to  have  the  work  done  promptly,  and 
I  thought  it  was  perfectly  safe.  I've  tossed  letters 
over  to  Smith  several  times.  I'm  worried  to  death 
about  it.  What's  best  to  do?" 

"Was  your  name  signed  to  it?" 

"  No;  but  my  name  was  on  the  envelope — an  old 
letter  envelope  that  I  had  when  we  came  here." 

"Well,  Gardner,  this  is  a  pretty  piece  of  busi- 


In  Confederate  Prisons  71 

ness!  That  letter  of  course  will  go  very  soon 
to  Major  Gee's  headquarters,  and  then — there'll 
be  the  devil  to  pay!" 

"The  sentinel  handed  the  letter  to  the  officer 
of  the  guard.  What  had  I  better  say,  if  they 
send  for  me?" 

"Say  you  intended  the  letter  to  fall  into  their 
hands;  that  you  meant  it  as  a  practical  joke, 
wanted  to  get  up  another  scare,  and  see  the 
Johnnies  prick  up  their  ears  again." 

"But,  Colonel,  like  a  fust-class  fool  I  put  a  ten- 
dollar  Confederate  bill  in  the  envelope.  I  wanted 
to  give  it  to  Sergeant  Smith.  That  don't  look  as 
if  I  meant  it  to  fall  into  their  hands — does  it?" 

"Gardner,  this  thing  has  an  ugly  look.  You've 
knocked  our  plans  of  escape  in  the  head — at  least 
for  the  present.  You've  got  yourself  into  a  fix. 
They'll  haul  you  up  to  headquarters.  They'll 
prove  by  the  letter  that  you've  been  deep  in  a 
plot  that  would  have  cost  a  good  many  lives. 
They're  feeling  ugly.  They  may  hang  or  shoot 
you  before  sundown,  as  a  warning  to  the  rest  of 
us  to  stop  these  plots  to  escape.  They  may  send 
for  you  at  any  minute. " 

"What  had  I  better  say  or  do?" 

"You'd  better  make  yourself  scarce  for  a  while, 
till  you've  got  a  plausible  story  made  up. 


72  Lights  and  Shadows 

Better  disguise  yourself  and  pass  yourself  off  as 
somebody  else;  so  gain  time." 

"I  have  it,  Colonel;  I'll  pass  myself  off  as 
Estabrooks." 

Estabrooks  was  an  officer  of  the  26th  Mass.,  who 
had  escaped  at  the  crossing  of  the  river  Yadkin 
two  weeks  previously  when  we  came  from  Rich 
mond.  Gardner  was  a  handsome  man  and  per 
haps  the  best-dressed  officer  in  prison ;  but  he  now 
disguised  himself. l  The  transformation  was  com 
plete.  In  half  an  hour  a  man  came  to  me  wearing 
a  slouched  hat  and  a  very  ragged  suit  of  Confeder 
ate  gray.  He  had  been  a  play-actor  before  the 
war  and  knew  how  to  conceal  his  identity.  By 
his  voice  I  recognized  him  as  Gardner!  "Well, 
Gardner,"  said  I,  "this  surpasses  His  Satanic 
Majesty;  or,  as  you  would  say,  beats  the  devil!" — 
"Colonel,"  he  replied,  "I'm  not  Gardner.  Gard 
ner  escaped ;  escaped  at  the  crossing  of  the  Yadkin 
River.  I'm  Estabrooks,  H.  L.  Estabrooks,  2d 
Lieutenant,  26th  Mass.  Call  me  Estabrooks 
if  you  please."— "All  right,  Estabrooks  it  is." 

Hardly  had  we  had  time  to  whisper  around  this 

1  "We  run  the  boy  into  one  of  the  houses,  clipped  his  hair, 
shaved  him,  and  placed  a  new  robe  on  him." — Letter  of  Capt. 
Wesley  C.  Howe  to  Colonel  Sprague,  Jan.  30,  1914. 


In  Confederate  Prisons  73 

change  of  name,  when  the  Confederate  officer  of 
the  guard  made  his  appearance  with  two  or  three 
soldiers,  inquiring  for  the  commissary  of  house 
number  four.  I  was  pointed  out  to  him.  In  sub 
stance  and  almost  in  the  exact  words  this  dialogue 
ensued : 

"Colonel  Sprague,  are  you  commissary  of  this 
house?" 

"I  have  that  honor." 

"I  want  to  find  Lieutenant  Gardner." 

"Who?" 

"Lieutenant  Gardner." 

"Who's  Lieutenant  Gardner?" 

" I  am  told  he's  an  officer  in  house  number  four; 
and  as  you  are  commissary,  you  can  probably  tell 
me  where  he  is  at. " 

"Where  he's  what?" 

"Where  he's  a/." 

This  was  -the  first  time  I  had  ever  heard  the  word 
at  so  used  at  the  end  of  a  sentence;  but  it  expresses 
the  meaning  with  admirable  precision.  I  had  a 
slight  qualm  at  lying ;  but  I  remembered  that  even 
George  Washington  could  tell  a  lie  if  necessary  in 
war.  Pacifying  my  conscience  with  the  fact  that 
we  were  outside  the  house  at  the  time,  I  said: 


74  Lights  and  Shadows 

"There's  no  such  officer  in  house  four.  But  I 
remember  an  officer  of  that  name  at  Libby,  hand 
somely  dressed,  a  perfect  dandy.  I  heard  that 
he  escaped  at  the  crossing  of  the  Yadkin  River  two 
weeks  ago.  Has  he  been  recaptured,  and  is  he 
going  to  be  shot  or  hanged?  Or  have  you  a  letter 
for  him?  What's  the  good  news  about  Gardner?" 

"I  only  know,"  he  replied,  "that  he's  wanted 
at  Major  Gee's  office,  and  he's  an  officer  in  house 
number  four." 

"Estabrooks, "  said  I  to  the  man  at  my  side, 
"do  you  know  of  a  Lieutenant  Gardner?" 

"  I  did  know  slightly  such  a  man  at  Libby.  You 
have  described  him  well;  a  fop,  a  beau,  a  dandy; 
just  about  my  size,  but  he  didn't  wear  rags  like  I 
do." 

"Come  with  me,"  said  I  to  the  Confederate. 
"We'll  go  into  the  house  and  inquire  if  any  one 
knows  of  a  Lieutenant  Gardner."  We  went  in. 
There  were  perhaps  thirty  or  forty  inside  who  had 
got  wind  of  what  was  going  on.  As  we  entered, 
I  asked  in  a  loud  voice,  "Does  any  officer  in  this 
house  know  anything  of  a  Lieutenant  Gardner?" 
Several  smiled  and  declared  it  a  very  singular 
name.  One  wanted  to  know  how  it  was  spelled! 
A  number  were  speaking  at  once.  One  said  he 


In  Confederate  Prisons  75 

escaped  at  the  Yadkin ;  he  knew  he  got  away,  for 
he  "watched  him  till  he  got  a  long  distance  out 
of  sight/*  Another  knew  a  Henry  J.  Gardner,  "a 
Know-Nothing"  governor  of  Massachusetts,  who 
knew  enough  to  keep  out  of  the  army.  Another 
affirmed  that  Gardner  was  dead ;  he  had  heard  him 
say  "I'm  a  dead  man, "  and  he  wouldn't  tell  a  lie! 
My  memory  is  somewhat  indistinct  of  all  that 
was  said ;  but  Gardner  is  alleged  to  have  whispered 
the  officer  thus:  "I  have  been  a  gardener  myself; 
and  if  Major  Gee  will  parole  me  and  give  me  good 
clothes  and  something  to  eat,  I  wouldn't  mind 
becoming  again  a  gardener  in  his  employ. "  I 
recollect  distinctly  that  the  officer  grew  impatient 
and  he  finally  asked  me,  "Do  you  say  on  your 
honor,  Colonel,  that  you  don't  know  a  Lieut. 
Wm.  O.  Gardner  in  this  house?"  I  answered,  "I 
do";  but  I  left  him  to  guess  whether  I  meant  "I 
do  know"  or  "I  do  say!"  I  quieted  my  con 
scientious  scruples  by  remembering  that  the  lieu 
tenant's  true  name  was  not  Wm.  O.  but  Wm.  C. ! 
The  baffled  officer  left  very  angry,  and  "  Where  s 
Gardner  at?"  passed  into  a  conundrum. 

Late  that  afternoon,  as  I  was  engaged  in  the 
delightful  employment  of  washing  my  fall-and- 
winter  shirt,  having  for  the  first  time  since  our 
arrival  in  Salisbury  obtained  sufficient  water  for 


76  In  Confederate  Prisons 

that  purpose,  the  order  came  for  all  officers  to  fall 
in  and  take  the  cars  for  Danville,  Va.  The  juxta 
position  of  three  or  four  hundred  Yankee  officers 
with  eight  thousand  of  their  enlisted  comrades- 
in-arms  was  getting  dangerous. 


CHAPTER  VI 

From  Salisbury  to  Danville — The  Forlorn  Situation — Effort  to 
"Extract  Sunshine  from  Cucumbers" — The  Vermin — The 
Prison  Commandant  a  Yale  Man — Proposed  Theatricals — 
Rules  Adopted — Studies — Vote  in  Prison  for  Lincoln  and 
McClellan— Killing  Time. 

AT  six  o'clock,  Wednesday  evening,  October 
19,  1864,  we  officers,  about  350  in  number,  were 
packed  in  five  freight  cars,  and  the  train  was 
started  for  Danville,  Va.  The  tops  of  the  cars 
were  covered  with  armed  guards,  two  or  three 
being  also  stationed  within  at  the  side  door  of 
each  car.  In  the  darkness  about  half-past  nine 
Lieut.  Joseph  B.  Simpson  of  the  nth  Indiana 
slyly  stole  all  the  food  from  the  haversacks  of  the 
guards  at  the  door  of  our  car  and  passed  it  round 
to  us,  while  we  loudly  "cussed  and  discussed" 
slavery  and  secession!  About  midnight  Captain 
Lock  wood,  Lieutenant  Driscoll,  and  eight  or  ten 
other  officers  leaped  from  the  cars.  The  guards 
opened  fire  upon  them.  Lock  wood  was  shot  dead. 
Several  were  recaptured,  and  some  probably 
reached  the  Union  lines  in  safety.  We  arrived 
at  Danville  at  noon  October  2Oth. 

77 


78  Lights  and  Shadows 

The  town  at  this  time  contained  four,  formerly 
six,  military  prisons,  each  a  tobacco  house  about 
eighty  to  a  hundred  feet  long  by  forty  to  fifty 
wide,  three  stories  high,  built  of  brick,  low  between 
joints.  The  officers  were  put  into  the  building 
known  as  prison  number  three.  We  were  informed 
by  the  guards  that  it  had  formerly  contained 
about  two  hundred  negro  prisoners ;  but  that  some 
had  died,  others  had  been  delivered  to  their 
masters  or  set  at  work  on  fortifications,  and  the 
number  remaining  just  before  our  arrival  was  only 
sixty-four.  These  were  removed  to  make  room 
for  us. 

Except  about  twenty  large  stout  wooden  boxes 
called  spittoons,  there  was  no  furniture  whatever 
in  prison  number  three.  Conjecture  was  rife  as 
to  the  purpose  of  the  Confederates  in  supplying  us 
with  spittoons  and  nothing  else.  They  were  too 
short  for  coffins,  too  large  for  wash  bowls,  too 
shallow  for  bathing  tubs,  too  deep  for  tureens! 
To  me  much  meditating  on  final  causes,  a  vague 
suspicion  at  length  arose  that  there  was  some 
mysterious  relation  between  those  twenty  oblong 
boxes  and  a  score  of  hogsheads  of  plug  tobacco, 
said  to  be  stored  in  the  basement.  A  tertium  QUID, 
a  solution  of  the  tobacco,  might  afford  a  solution 
of  the  spittoon  mystery! 


In  Confederate  Prisons  79 

A  dozen  water  buckets  were  put  into  each  of  the 
two  upper  rooms  to  which  all  the  officers  were 
restricted ;  also  a  small  cylinder  coal  stove ;  nothing 
else  until  December,  when  another  small  stove 
was  placed  there.  Winter  came  early  and  un 
usually  cold.  The  river  Dan  froze  thick.  It  was 
some  weeks  before  we  prevailed  upon  the  prison 
commandant  to  replace  with  wood  the  broken-out 
glass  in  the  upper  rooms.  The  first  floor  was 
uninhabitable. 

So  with  no  bed  nor  blanket ;  no  chairs,  benches, 
nor  tables;  no  table-ware  nor  cooking  utensils; 
not  even  shovel,  poker,  or  coal-scoop;  most  of  us 
were  in  a  sorry  plight.  The  little  stoves,  heated 
white-hot,  would  have  been  entirely  inadequate 
to  warm  those  rooms;  but  the  coal  was  miserably 
deficient  in  quality  as  well  as  quantity.  The  fire 
often  went  out.  To  rekindle  it,  there  was  no 
other  way  than  to  upset  the  whole,  emptying  ashes 
and  cinders  on  the  floor.  At  best,  the  heat  was 
obstructed  by  a  compact  ring  of  shivering  officers, 
who  had  preempted  positions  nearest  the  stoves. 
They  had  taken  upon  themselves  to  "run"  the 
thing;  and  they  did  it  well.  We  called  them  " The 
Stove  Brigade."  In  spite  of  their  efforts,  they 
like  the  rest  suffered  from  cold. 

Three  or  four  of  us,  as  a  sanitary  measure,  made 


8o  Lights  and  Shadows 

it  a  point  to  see,  if  possible,  the  funny,  or  at  least 
the  bright  side  of  everything,  turn  melancholy  to 
mirth,  shadow  to  sunshine.  When  every  officer 
complained  of  cold,  we  claimed  to  anticipate  the 
philosophers,  Tyndall,  Huxley,  and  the  other 
physicists,  in  declaring  that  "heat  is  a  mode  of 
motion,1'  and  brisk  bodily  exercise  will  infallibly 
demonstrate  the  fact!  When,  as  was  usually  the 
case,  all  were  hungry,  we  announced  as  a  sure  cure 
for  indigestion,  "  stop  eating  /  "  When  our  prisoner 
chaplain  Emerson  on  a  Sunday  afternoon  prayed 
for  the  dear  ones  we  expected  to  see  no  more,  and 
even  the  roughest  and  most  profane  were  in  tears, 
we  said  with  old  Homer,  "  Agathoi  aridakrues 
andres"  ("Gallant  men  are  easily  moved  to  tears"), 
or  with  Bayard  Taylor,  "The  bravest  are  the 
tenderest,  the  loving  are  the  daring." 

Most  humiliating  of  all  was  the  inevitable  plague 
of  vermin.  "Hard  indeed,"  one  officer  was  ac 
customed  to  say,  "must  have  been  Pharaoh's 
heart,  and  tougher  yet  his  epidermis,  if  the  lice  of 
the  third  Egyptian  plague  were  like  those  of  Dan 
ville,  and  yet  he  would  not '  let  Israel  go.' '  Wear 
ing  the  same  clothing  night  and  day,  sitting  on  the 
bare  floors,  sleeping  there  in  contact  with  com 
panions  not  over-nice,  no  patient  labor,  no  exter 
minating  unguent,  afforded  much  relief.  We  lost 


In  Confederate  Prisons  81 

all  squeamishness,  all  delicacy  on  the  subject,  all 
inclination  for  concealment.  It  was  not  a  returned 
Danville  prisoner  who  was  reported  to  have  gone 
into  a  drug  store  in  New  York  stealthily  scratch 
ing  and  saying,  "I  want  some  unguentum;  don't 
want  it  for  myself;  only  want  it  for  a  friend." 
But  it  was  reported  and  believed  that  in  April  one 
of  them  entered  an  apothecary  shop  in  Annapolis 
plying  his  finger-nails  and  hurriedly  asking, 
"Have  you  any  bmsquintum?" — "From  your 
manner,"  answered  the  courteous  druggist,  "I 
think  what  you  want  is  unguentum."-  "Yes, 
run  git  'em;  I  guess  that  is  the  true  name. "-— "  Un 
guentum,  sir";  said  the  shopkeeper.  "How  much 
unguentum  do  you  want?" — "Well,  I  reckon 
about  two  pound!"-  "My  dear  sir,  two  pounds 
would  kill  all  the  lice  in  Maryland."— "Well,  I 
vow  I  believe  I've  got  'em!" 

Lieut.-Col.  Robert  C.  Smith  of  Baltimore,  who 
took  command  of  the  Danville  prisons  soon  after 
our  arrival,  appeared  to  be  kind-hearted,  com 
passionate,  but  woefully  destitute  of  what  Mrs. 
Stowe  calls  "  faculty. "  He  was  of  medium  height, 
spare  build,  fair  complexion,  sandy  hair,  blue 
eyes,  of  slightly  stooping  figure;  on  the  whole  rather 
good-looking.  He  was  slow  of  speech,  with  a 
nasal  twang  that  reminded  me  of  Dr.  Horace 


82  Lights  and  Shadows 

Bushnell.  His  face  always  wore  a  sad  expression. 
He  had  been  a  student  at  Yale  in  the  forties  a  few 
years  before  me.  Once  a  prisoner  himself  in  our 
hands  and  fairly  treated,  he  sympathized  with  us. 
He  had  been  wounded,  shot  through  the  right 
shoulder.  When  I  visited  on  parole  the  other 
Danville  prisons  in  February,  a  Yankee  soldier 
was  pointed  out  to  me  as  wearing  Colonel  Smith's 
blood-stained  coat,  and  another  was  said  to  be 
wearing  his  vest.  I  had  repeated  interviews  with 
him,  in  which  he  expressed  regret  at  not  being 
able  to  make  us  more  comfortable.  He  said  more 
than  once  to  me,  "  I  have  no  heart  for  this  business. 
It  requires  a  man  without  any  heart  to  keep  a  mil 
itary  prison.  I  have  several  times  asked  to  be  re 
lieved  and  sent  to  the  front. "  An  officer  of  forceful 
executive  ability  might  have  procured  for  us 
lumber  for  benches,  more  coal  or  wood  for  the 
stoves,  some  straw  or  hay  for  bedding,  blankets  or 
cast-off  clothing  for  the  half  naked ;  possibly  a  little 
food,  certainly  a  supply  of  reading  matter  from 
the  charitably  disposed.  Single  instances  of  his 
compassion  I  have  mentioned.  I  shall  have 
occasion  to  speak  of  another.  But  the  spectacle 
of  the  hopeless  mass  of  misery  in  the  four  Danville 
prisons  seemed  to  render  him  powerless,  if  not 
indifferent.  As  Mrs.  Browning  puts  it: 


In  Confederate  Prisons  83 

A  red-haired  child, 

Sick  in  a  fever,  if  you  touch  him  once, 
Though  but  so  little  as  with  a  finger-tip, 
Will  set  you  weeping;  but  a  million  sick! 
You  could  as  soon  weep  for  the  rule  of  three, 
Or  compound  fractions! 

Like  too  many  officers  both  Union  and  Confeder 
ate,  he  was  often  in  liquor;  liquor  was  always  in  him. 
This  " knight  of  the  rueful  countenance,"  of  the 
sad  heart,  the  mourning  voice,  the  disabled  right 
arm,  and  the  weakness  for  apple-jack! — his  only 
hope  was  to  have  an  exchange  of  prisoners;  but 
Lincoln  and  Stanton  and  Grant  would  not  consent 
to  that.  The  last  I  heard  of  him  was  when  a  letter 
of  his  was  shown  me  by  Lieutenant  Washington,  a 
Confederate,  a  distant  relative  of  the  great  George. 
In  it  Smith,  who  had  been  absent  a  week  from 
Danville,  complained  that  he  had  had  "no  liquor 
for  three  days,"  and  that  he  was  "painfully 
sober"! 

"Necessity,"  says  the  old  apothegm,  "is  the 
mother  of  invention."  It  was  surprising,  how 
much  we  accomplished  in  a  few  weeks  towards 
making  ourselves  comfortable.  Bone  or  wood  was 
carved  into  knives,  forks,  spoons,  buttons,  finger- 
rings,  masonic  or  army  badges,  tooth-picks,  bosom 
pins,  and  other  ornaments;  corn-cobs  were  made 


84  Lights  and  Shadows 

into  smoking  pipes;  scraps  of  tin  or  sheet-iron 
were  fashioned  into  plates  for  eating  or  dishes  for 
cooking;  shelves  were  made  by  tying  long  wood 
splinters  together;  and  many  "spittoons,"  which 
were  soon  rendered  superfluous,  because  the  two 
entire  rooms  were  transformed  into  vast  spittoons, 
were  inverted,  and  made  useful  as  seats  which  we 
called  sofas. 

Many  ingeniously  wrought  specimens  of  Yankee 
ingenuity  were  sold  clandestinely  to  the  rebel 
guards,  who  ventured  to  disobey  strict  orders.  No 
skinflint  vender  of  wooden  nutmegs,  leather 
pumpkin-seeds,  horn  gunflints,  shoe-peg  oats, 
huckleberry-leaf  tea,  bass-wood  cheeses,  or  white- 
oak  hams,  ever  hankered  more  for  a  trade.  Besides 
the  products  of  our  prison  industry,  they  craved 
watches,  rings,  gold  chains,  silver  spurs,  gilt 
buttons,  genuine  breast-pins,  epaulets;  anything 
that  was  not  manufactured  in  the  Confederacy. 
Most  of  all,  they  longed  for  greenbacks  in  exchange 
for  rebel  currency.  So  in  one  way  or  another  many 
of  us  contrived  to  get  a  little  money  of  some  sort. 
With  it  we  could  buy  of  the  sutler,  who  visited  us 
from  time  to  time,  rice,  flour,  beans,  bacon,  onions, 
dried  apple,  red  peppers,  sorghum  syrup,  vinegar, 
etc. 

Perhaps  the  best  result  of  our  engaging  in  handi- 


In  Confederate  Prisons  85 

craft  work  was  the  relief  from  unspeakable  depres 
sion  of  spirits.  Some  of  us  saw  the  importance  of 
making  diversion  on  a  large  scale.  To  this  end  we 
planned  to  start  a  theatre.  Major  Wm.  H.  Fry, 
of  the  1 6th  Pa.  Cavalry,  who  knew  all  about 
vaudeville  in  Philadelphia,  was  a  wise  adviser. 
Young  Gardner,  who  had  been  an  actor,  heartily 
joined  in  the  movement.  I  procured  a  worn-out 
copy  of  Shakespeare.  It  seemed  best  to  begin  with 
the  presentation  of  the  first  act  in  Hamlet.  Colonel 
Smith  and  other  rebel  officers  promised  to  aid  us. 
We  assigned  the  parts  and  commenced  stud}dng 
and  rehearsing.  Gardner  was  to  be  Hamlet; 
Lieut. -Col.  Theodore  Gregg,  45th  Pa.,  was  to  be 
Claudius,  the  usurping  king;  the  smooth-faced 
Capt.  William  Cook  was  to  be  the  queen-mother 
Gertrude;  Capt.  W.  F.  Tiemann,  1591*1  N.  Y., 
was  to  personate  Marcellus;  Lieut.  C.  H.  Morton 
of  Fairhaven,  Mass.,  I  think,  was  Horatio;  and 
I,  having  lost  about  forty  pounds  of  flesh  since  my 
capture — it  was  thought  most  appropriate  that  I 
should  be  the  Ghost!  Every  morning  for  some 
weeks  on  the  empty  first  floor  we  read  and  re 
hearsed,  and  really  made  fine  progress.  But  when 
we  got  ready  to  produce  in  theatric  style,  with  slight 
omissions,  the  first  act,  the  rebels  seemed  sus 
picious  of  some  ulterior  design.  They  refused  to 


86  Lights  and  Shadows 

furnish  a  sword  for  Hamlet,  a  halberd  for  Marcel  - 
lus,  muskets  for  Bernardo  and  Francisco,  a  calico 
gown  for  the  queen,  or  even  a  white  shirt  for  the 
Ghost.  This  was  discouraging.  When  the  lovely 
queen-mother  Gertrude  appealed  to  her  son- 
Good  Hamlet,  cast  thy  nigh  ted  color  off, — 

he  answered,  "I  swear  I  can't  do  it!"  One 
November  morning,  as  we  were  rehearsing  and 
shivering  on  the  windy  first  floor,  he  ejaculated 
with  some  emphasis,  and  with  ungentle  expletives 
not  found  in  the  original  text, 

The  air  bites  shrewdly;  it  is  very  cold; 

"I  move,  Colonel,  that  we  'bust  up*  this 
theatre."  So  the  "legitimate  drama"  vanished 
from  Danville. 

About  this  time  my  copy  of  the  Greek  New 
Testament  was  stolen  from  me,  an  instance,  per 
haps,  of  piety  run  mad. 

A  week  or  two  before  this,  the  lower  room,  in 
which  I  then  lodged,  containing  about  a  hundred 
and  seventy  officers,  was  getting  into  such  a 
condition  that  I  felt  it  my  duty  to  call  a  meeting 
to  see  what  measures  could  be  adopted  to  promote 
comfort  and  decency.  I  was  not  the  senior  in 
rank,  but  Colonel  Carle  did  not  feel  himself  au- 


In  Confederate  Prisons  87 

thorized  to  issue  orders.  Some  sort  of  government 
must  be  instituted  at  once.  Nearly  all  recognized 
the  necessity  of  prompt  action  and  strict  discipline. 
A  committee  was  appointed  consisting  of  myself, 
Major  John  W.  Byron,  88th  N.  Y.,  and  another 
officer  whose  name  escapes  me,  to  draw  up  rules 
and  regulations.  We  presented  the  following: 

RULES  UNANIMOUSLY  ADOPTED    IN  THE  LOWER  ROOM, 
DANVILLE,  VA.,  PRISON,  OCT.  26,  1864: 

1.  The  room  shall  be  thoroughly  policed  (swept, 

etc.)  four  times  each  day  by  the  messes  in 
succession;  viz.,  at  sunrise  and  sunset,  and 
immediately  after  breakfast  and  dinner. 

2.  There  shall  be  no  washing  in  this  room. 

3.  No  emptying  slops  into  spittoons. 

4.  No  washing  in  the  soup  buckets  or  water  buckets. 

5.  No  shaking  of  clothes  or  blankets  in  this  room. 

6.  No  cooking  inside  the  stoves. 

7.  No  loitering  in  the  yard  to  the  inconvenience  of 

others. 

8.  No  person  shall  be  evidently  filthy  or  infested 

with  vermin. 

9.  No  indecent,  profane,  or  ungentlemanly  language 

in  this  room. 

10.  No  conduct  unbecoming  an  officer  and  gentle 

man  about  these  premises. 

1 1 .  No  talking  aloud  at  night  after  nine  o'clock. 

12.  An  officer  of  the  day  shall  be  appointed  daily  by 

the  senior  officer,  whose  duty  shall  be  to  see 
that  these  rules  are  strictly  enforced,  and  to 


88  Lights  and  Shadows 

report   to    the   senior   officer    any    violation 
thereof. 

13.  In  case  of  any  alleged  violation  of  any  of  these  rules, 
the  senior  officer  of  the  room  shall  appoint  a 
Court1  to  consist  of  thirteen  disinterested 
officers,  who  shall  fairly  try  and  determine  the 
matter,  and  in  case  of  conviction  the  offender's 
rations  shall  be  stopped,  or  the  commander  of 
the  prison  be  requested  to  confine  the  offender 
in  a  cell  according  to  the  sentence  of  the  Court ; 
and  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  every  officer  to 
have  such  offender  court-martialed  after  re 
joining  his  command. 
For  the  Committee.  H .  B .  Sprague ,  Oct ,26,1864. 

The  prison  commandant  promised  that  he  would 
execute  any  sentence  short  of  capital  punishment. 
But  one  case  was  tried  by  such  court.  The  offense 
was  a  gross  violation  of  rule  9.  The  culprit  was  let 
off  with  a  sharp  reprimand  by  General  Hayes ;  but 
my  first  act  after  the  exchange  of  prisoners  was 
to  prefer  charges  and  specifications  against  him. 
The  beast  was  court-martialed  at  Annapolis  in  the 
latter  part  of  July,  '65. 

The  observance  of  these  rules  wrought  wonders 
in  correcting  evils  which  had  become  almost  un 
endurable,  and  in  promoting  cheerfulness,  good 
behavior,  and  mutual  esteem. 

Many  letters  were  written  to  us.     Few  of  them 

1  See  Appendix. 


In  Confederate  Prisons  89 

reached  their  destination.  The  first  I  received 
was  from  Miss  Martha  Russell,  a  lady  of  fine  liter 
ary  ability,  a  friend  of  Edgar  A.  Poe,  living  at 
North  Branford,  Conn.  In  raising  my  company 
(Co.  H.,  1 3th  Conn.),  I  had  enlisted  her  brother 
Alfred.  Under  strict  military  discipline  he  had 
become  a  valuable  soldier,  and  I  had  appointed 
him  my  first  sergeant.  At  the  battle  of  Irish 
Bend,  La.,  in  which  I  was  myself  wounded,  he 
was  shot  through  the  neck.  The  wound  seemed 
mortal,  but  I  secured  special  care  for  him,  and  his 
life  was  spared  as  by  miracle.  His  sister's  letter 
brought  a  ray  of  sunshine  to  several  of  us.  It 
assured  us  that  we  were  tenderly  cared  for  at 
home.  She  quoted  to  cheer  us  the  fine  lines  of 
the  Cavalier  poet  Lovelace, 

Stone  walls  do  not  a  prison  make, 

Nor  iron  bars  a  cage; 
Minds  innocent  and  quiet  take 

That  for  a  hermitage. 

A  well-grounded  conviction  prevailed  among  the 
prisoners  that  the  Confederate  government  was 
anxious  to  secure  an  exchange  of  prisoners,  but 
that  the  Federal  government  would  not  consent. 
The  reason  was  evident  enough.  The  Confederate 
prisoners  in  the  North,  as  a  rule,  were  fit  for  mili 
tary  duty;  the  Union  prisoners  in  the  South  were 


90  Lights  and  Shadows 

physically  unfit.  A  general  exchange  would  have 
placed  at  once,  say,  more  than  forty  thousand 
fresh  soldiers  in  the  rebel  ranks,  but  very  few  in 
ours.  Conscription  for  military  service  had  been 
tried  in  the  North  with  results  so  bitter  that  it 
seemed  unwise  to  attempt  it  again.  Better  let  the 
unfortunates  in  southern  prisons  perish  in  silence- 
that  appeared  the  wisest  policy.  But  to  us  prison 
ers  it  appeared  a  mistake  and  gross  neglect  of  duty. 
Between  our  keen  sense  of  the  wrong  in  allowing  us 
to  starve,  and  our  love  for  Lincoln  and  the  Union, 
there  was  a  struggle.  Our  patriotism  was  put  to 
the  test  on  the  day  of  the  Presidential  election, 
Tuesday,  November  8th.  Discouraging  as  was  the 
outlook  for  us  personally,  we  had  confidence  in  the 
government  and  in  the  justice  of  our  cause.  Pains 
was  taken  to  obtain  a  full  and  fair  vote  in  the 
officers'  prison.  There  were  two  hundred  seventy- 
six  for  Lincoln ;  ninety-one  for  McClellan.  Under 
the  circumstances  the  result  was  satisfactory. 
Very  earnest,  if  not  acrimonious,  were  the  dis 
cussions  that  immediately  preceded  and  followed. 
Some  of  us  realized  their  importance,  not  so  much 
in  arriving  at  a  correct  decision  on  the  questions 
at  issue,  as  in  preventing  mental  stagnation  likely 
to  result  in  imbecility  if  not  actual  idiocy.  By 
the  stimulus  of  employment  of  some  kind  we  must 


In  Confederate  Prisons  91 

fight  against  the  apathy,  the  hopeless  loss  of  will 
power,  into  which  several  of  our  comrades  seemed 
sinking.  Mrs.  Browning  well  says: 

Get  leave  to  work 
In  this  world, — 'tis  the  best  you  get  at  all. 

Get  work;  get  work; 

Be  sure  'tis  better  than  what  you  work  to  get! 

Some  of  us  started  historical  debates,  and  new 
views  were  presented  which  furnished  both  amuse 
ment  and  instruction.  One  colonel,  more  redoubt 
able  in  battle  than  in  dialectics,  who  had  been 
shot  through  from  breast  to  back,  gravely  informed 
us  that  the  geometer  Euclid  was  an  early  English 
writer!  A  kindly  visitor,  Dr.  Holbrook,  made  me 
a  present  of  Hitchcock's  Elementary  Geology.  It 
was  not  quite  up  to  date,  having  been  published 
about  twenty-five  years  before,  but  I  found  the 
study  interesting.  Grieved  at  having  lost  from 
my  books  three  years  in  military  service,  I  endeav 
ored  with  three  or  four  companions  to  make  up 
for  the  deficiency  by  taking  lessons  in  French. 
Our  teacher  was  Captain  Cook,  already  mentioned 
as  teaching  us  French  at  Salisbury.  As  we  had  no 
books,  the  instruction  was  oral.  I  was  delighted  to 
observe  how  much  a  knowledge  of  Latin  facilitated 
the  acquisition  of  the  modern  tongue.  A  few 
weeks  later  upon  the  arrival  of  Major  George 


92  In  Confederate  Prisons 

Haven  Putnam,  Adjutant  at  that  time  of  the 
1 76th  N.  Y.,  several  of  us  commenced  under 
him  the  study  of  German.  Here  too  the  teaching 
was  oral;  but  I  was  able  to  buy  Oehlschlager's 
German  Reader;  took  special  pleasure  in  memoriz 
ing  some  of  the  selections,  particularly  from  the 
poets  Gleim,  Claudius,  Goethe,  Schiller,  and  Uh- 
land ;  and  I  was  already  familiar  with  some  stanzas 
of  Arndt's  noble  Tke  German  Fatherland,  sung  so 
often  to  me  by  my  Lieutenant  Meisner,  slain  by  my 
side  in  battle.  Some  of  those  songs  still  ring  in 
my  ears.  General  Hayes,  Major  Putnam,  and  two 
or  three  others  took  lessons  in  Spanish  from  a 
native  of  Mexico,  2d  Lieut.  John  Gayetti  (I  think 
that  was  his  name),  of  Battery  B,  2d  Pa.  Artillery. 

Checkerboards  and  chessboards  were  prepared 
from  the  rudest  materials,  and  many  were  the 
games  with  which  some  of  our  comrades  sought  to 
beguile  the  weary  hours.  Capt.  Frank  H.  Mason 
of  the  1 2th  Cavalry  had  the  reputation  of  being 
our  best  chess  player  and  young  Adjutant  Putnam 
was  his  most  persistent  opponent. 

No  one  needs  to  be  told  that  old  soldiers  are 
great  story-tellers,  drawing  upon  their  imagina 
tion  for  facts.  This  talent  was  assiduously 
cultivated  in  our  prison. 


CHAPTER  VII 

Exact  Record  of  Rations  in  Danville — Opportunity  to  Cook — 
Daily  Routine  of  Proceedings  from  Early  Dawn  till  Late 
at  Night. 

OUR  imprisonment  at  Danville  lasted  from 
October  20,  '64,  to  February  17,  '65,  one  hundred 
and  twenty  days.  I  kept  a  careful  daily  record  of 
the  rations  issued  to  us,  as  did  also  Lieut.  Watson 
W.  Bush,  2d  N.  Y.  " Mounted  Rifles."  After 
our  removal  from  Danville  to  Richmond  for  ex 
change,  we  compared  our  memoranda,  and  found 
they  substantially  agreed.  During  the  one  hun 
dred  and  twenty  days  the  issues  were  as  follows: 

Bread.  A  loaf  every  morning.  It  was  made  of 
unsifted  corn-meal,  ground  "cobs  and  all."  Pieces 
several  inches  in  length  of  cobs  unground  were  some 
times  contained  in  it.  It  always  seemed  whole 
some,  though  moist,  almost  watery.  Its  dimensions 
were  a  little  less  than  7  inches  long,  3  or  4  wide,  and 
3  thick.  I  managed  to  bring  home  a  loaf,  and  we  were 
amazed  at  the  shrinkage  to  a  quarter  of  its  original 
size.  It  had  become  very  hard.  We  broke  it  in  two, 
and  found  inside  what  appeared  to  be  a  dishcloth! 

Meat.  Forty-three  times.  I  estimated  the  weight 
93 


94  Lights  and  Shadows 

at  from  2  to  5  or  6  ounces.  In  it  sometimes  were 
hides,  brains,  heads,  tails,  jaws  with  teeth,  lights, 
livers,  kidneys,  intestines,  and  nameless  portions  of  the 
animal  economy. 

Soup.  Sixty-two  times;  viz.,  bean  soup  forty-seven 
times ;  cabbage  nine  times ;  gruel  six.  It  was  the  thin 
nest  decoction  of  small  black  beans,  the  slightest 
infusion  of  cabbage,  or  the  most  attenuated  gruel  of 
corn-cob  meal,  that  a  poetic  imagination  ever  digni 
fied  with  the  name  of  soup! 

Potatoes.  Seven  times.  Seldom  was  one  over  an 
inch  in  diameter. 

Salt  fish.  Five  times.  They  call  it  "hake."  It 
was  good.  "  Hunger  the  best  sauce. " 

Sorghum  syrup.  Three  times.  It  was  known  as 
"corn-stalk  molasses."  It  was  not  bad. 

Nothing  else  was  given  us  for  food  by  the  Con 
federates  at  Danville.  The  rations  appeared  to 
deteriorate  and  diminish  as  the  winter  advanced. 
My  diary  shows  that  in  the  fifty-three  days  after 
Christmas  we  received  meat  only  three  times. 

Manifestly  such  supplies  are  insufficient  to  sus 
tain  life  very  long.  By  purchase  from  the  rebel  sut 
ler  who  occasionally  visited  us,  or  by  surreptitious 
trading  with  the  guards,  we  might  make  additions 
to  our  scanty  allowance.  I  recollect  that  two 
dollars  of  irredeemable  treasury  notes  would  buy 
a  gill  of  rice  or  beans  or  corn,  a  turnip,  onion, 
parsnip,  or  small  pickled  cucumber! 


In  Confederate  Prisons  95 

The  Confederate  cooking  needed  to  be  sup 
plemented.  Here  the  cylinder  coal- stoves  were 
made  useful.  The  tops  of  them  were  often  covered 
with  toasting  corn  bread.  Tin  pails  and  iron 
kettles  of  various  capacities,  from  a  pint  to  several 
quarts,  suspended  from  the  top  by  wooden  hooks 
a  foot  or  two  in  length,  each  vessel  resting  against 
the  hot  stove  and  containing  rice,  beans,  Indian 
corn,  dried  apple,  crust  coffee,  or  other  delicacy 
potable  or  edible  slowly  preparing,  made  the  whole 
look  like  a  big  black  chandelier  with  pendants. 
We  were  rather  proud  of  our  prison  cuisine.  Cook 
ing  was  also  performed  on  and  in  an  old  worn-out 
cook-stove,  which  a  few  of  our  millionaires,  form 
ing  a  joint-stock  company  for  the  purpose,  had 
bought  for  two  hundred  Confederate  dollars  late  in 
the  season,  and  which  the  kind  prison  commander 
had  permitted  them  to  place  near  the  southwest 
end  of  the  upper  room,  running  the  pipe  out  of  a 
window.  Culinary  operations  were  extensively 
carried  on  also  in  the  open  yard  outside,  about 
forty  feet  by  twenty,  at  the  northeast  end  of  the 
building.  Here  the  officer  would  build  a  diminu 
tive  fire  of  chips  or  splinters  between  bricks,  and 
boil  or  toast  or  roast  his  allowance.  We  were 
grouped  in  messes  of  five  to  ten  or  twelve  each. 
Happy  the  club  of  half  a  dozen  that  could  get 


96  Lights  and  Shadows 

money  enough  and  a  big  enough  kettle  to  have 
their  meal  prepared  jointly. 

Such  was  the  case  with  my  own  group  after  the 
lapse  of  about  two  months.  We  had  been  pinched ; 
but  one  morning  Captain  Cook  came  to  me  with 
radiant  face  and  said:  "Colonel,  I  have  good 
news  for  you.  /  'm  going  to  run  this  mess.  My 
folks  in  New  York  have  made  arrangement  with 
friends  in  England  to  supply  me  with  money,  and 
I've  just  received  through  the  lines  a  hundred 
dollars.  We'll  live  like  fighting-cocks!"  Adjt. 
J.  A.  Clark,  I7th  Pa.  Cav.,  was  our  delighted  cook. 
Shivering  for  an  hour  over  the  big  kettle  amid  the 
ice  and  snow  of  the  back  yard,  he  would  send  up 
word,  " Colonel,  set  the  table  for  dinner."  To 
"set  the  table"  consisted  in  sweeping  a  space  six 
or  eight  feet  square,  and  depositing  there  the 
plates,  wood,  tin,  or  earthen  (mine  was  of  wood; 
it  had  cost  me  a  week's  labor  in  carving).  The 
officers  already  mentioned,  Cook,  Clark,  Bush, 
Sprague,  with  Lieut.  E.  H.  Wilder,  Qth  N.  Y. 
Cav.,  sit  around  in  the  elegant  Turkish  fashion,  or 
more  classical  recline  like  the  ancients  in  their 
symposia,  each  resting  on  his  left  elbow,  with  face 
as  near  as  possible  to  the  steaming  kettle,  that  not 
a  smell  may  be  lost! 

Wood  was  scarce.     It  was  used  with  most  rigid 


In  Confederate  Prisons  97 

economy.  Many  joists  overhead  had  been  sawed 
off  by  Lieut.  Lewis  R.  Tijus  of  the  Corps  D'Afrique, 
using  a  notched  table-knife  for  a  saw.  In  this 
way  the  Vermont  Yankee  obtained  pieces  for 
cooking,  but  he  weakened  the  structure  till  some 
officers  really  feared  the  roof  might  come  tumbling 
about  our  heads;  and  I  remember  that  the  prison 
commandant,  visiting  the  upper  room  and  gazing 
heavenward,  more  than  once  ejaculated  irreverently 
the  name  of  the  opposite  region ! 

Through  the  kindness  of  a  Confederate  officer 
or  bribing  the  guards  a  log  four  or  five  feet  in 
length  is  sometimes  brought  in.  Two  or  three 
instantly  attack  it  with  a  blunt  piece  of  iron  hoop 
to  start  the  cleaving,  and  in  less  time  than  one 
could  expect  such  a  work  to  be  done  with  axes  it 
is  split  fine  with  wooden  wedges. 

Naturally  one  of  the  ever-recurring  topics 
of  discussion  was  the  glorious  dishes  we  could 
prepare,  if  we  but  had  the  materials,  or  of  which 
we  would  partake  if  we  ever  got  home  again. 
In  our  memorandum  books  we  are  careful  to 
note  down  the  street  and  number  of  the  most 
famous  restaurant  in  each  of  the  largest  cities, 
like  Delmonico's  in  New  York  or  Young's  in 
Boston. 

With  few  exceptions  one  day  is  like  another. 

7 


98  Lights  and  Shadows 

At  earliest  dawn  each  of  the  two  floors  is  covered 
with  about  a  hundred  and  seventy-five  prostrate 
forms  of  officers  who  have  been  trying  to  sleep. 
Soon  some  one  of  them  calls  in  a  loud  voice. 
"Buckets  for  water!"  The  call  is  repeated.  Five 
or  six,  who  have  predetermined  to  go  early  to 
the  river  Dan  that  seemed  nearly  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  distant,  start  up  and  seize  large  wooden 
pails.  They  pass  to  the  lower  floor.  One  of 
them  says  to  the  sentinel  on  duty  at  the  south 
west  corner  door,  ' '  Sentry,  call  the  sergeant  of  the 
guard;  we  want  to  go  for  water."  He  complies. 
In  five,  ten,  or  fifteen  minutes,  a  non-commissioned 
officer,  with  some  half  a  dozen  heavily  armed 
soldiers,  comes,  the  bolts  slide,  the  doors  swing, 
our  squad  passes  out.  They  are  escorted  down 
the  hill  to  the  river,  and  back  to  prison.  By  this 
time  it  is  broad  daylight.  Many  are  still  lying 
silent  on  the  floor.  Most  have  risen.  Some  are 
washing,  or  rather  wiping  with  wet  handkerchief, 
face  and  hands;  others  are  preparing  to  cook, 
splitting  small  blocks  of  wood  for  a  fire  of  splinters ; 
a  few  are  nibbling  corn  bread;  here  and  there  one 
is  reading  the  New  Testament.  There  is  no  change 
or  adjustment  of  clothing,  for  the  night  dress  is  the 
same  as  the  day  dress.  We  no  longer  wonder  how 
the  cured  paralytic  in  Scripture  could  obey  the 


In  Confederate  Prisons  99 

command,  "Take  up  thy  bed  and  walk";  for  at 
heaviest  the  bed  is  but  a  blanket! 

Now,  for  a  half- hour,  vengeance  on  vermin 
that  have  plagued  us  during  the  night !  We  daily 
solve  the  riddle  of  the  fishermen's  answer  to 
"What  luck?"  the  question  which  puzzled  to 
death 

"  The  blind  old  bard  of  Scio's  rocky  isle," 

"  As  many  as  we  caught  we  left;  as  many  as  we  could 
not  catch  we  carry  with  MS!" 

About  eight  o'clock  the  cry  is  heard  from  the 
southwest  end  of  the  room,  "Fall  in  for  roll-call! 
fall  in!"  to  which  several  would  impudently  add, 
"Here  he  comes!  here  he  is!"  A  tall,  slim,  stoop 
ing,  beardless,  light-haired  phenomenon,  known  as 
"the  roll-call  sergeant,"  enters  with  two  mus 
keteers.  We  officers  having  formed  in  two  ranks 
on  the  northwest  side  of  the  room,  he  passes 
down  the  front  from  left  to  right  slowly  counting. 
Setting  down  the  number  in  a  memorandum 
book,  he  commands  in  a  squeaky  feminine  voice, 
"Break  ranks,"  which  most  of  us  have  already 
done.  Much  speculation  arose  as  to  the  nature 
and  status  of  this  singular  being.  His  face  was 
smooth  and  childlike,  yet  dry  and  wrinkled,  so 
that  it  was  impossible  to  tell  whether  he  was 


ioo  Lights  and  Shadows 

fifteen  or  fifty.  A  committee  was  said  to  have 
waited  upon  him,  and  with  much  apparent  defer 
ence  asked  him  as  to  his  nativity,  his  age,  and 
whether  he  was  human  or  divine,  married  or  single, 
man  or  woman.  They  said  he  answered  sadly, 
"Alas!  I'm  no  angel,  but  a  married  man,  thirty- 
seven  years  old,  from  South  Carolina.  I  have 
three  children  who  resemble  me. " 

Immediately  after  roll-call,  corn  bread  is  brought 
in  for  breakfast.  It  is  in  large  squares  about  two 
feet  in  length  and  breadth,  the  top  of  each  square 
being  marked  for  cutting  into  twenty  or  twenty- 
five  rations.  Colonel  Hooper  and  Capt.  D.  Tarbell 
receive  the  whole  from  the  rebel  commissary,  and 
then  distribute  to  each  mess  its  portion.  The 
mess  commissary  endeavors  to  cut  it  into  equal 
oblong  loaves.  To  make  sure  of  a  fair  distribution, 
one  officer  turns  his  back,  and  one  after  another 
lays  his  hand  upon  a  loaf  and  asks,  "Whose  is 
this?"  The  officer  who  has  faced  about  names 
some  one  as  the  recipient. 

Clear  the  way  now  for  sweepers.  From  one 
end  of  the  room  to  the  other  they  ply  their  coarse 
wooden  brooms.  Some  officers  are  remarkably 
neat,  and  will  scrape  their  floor  space  with  pieces 
of  glass  from  the  broken  windows;  a  few  are  list 
less,  sullen,  utterly  despondent,  regardless  of 


In  Confederate  Prisons  101 

surroundings,  apparently  sinking  into  imbecility; 
the  majority  are  taking  pains  to  keep  up  an 
appearance  of  respectability. 

Many  who  have  been  kept  awake  through  the 
night  by  cold  or  rheumatism  now  huddle  around 
the  stoves  and  try  to  sleep.  Most  of  the  remain 
der,  as  the  weeks  pass,  glide  into  something  like 
a  routine  of  occupations.  For  several  weeks  I 
spent  an  hour  or  two  every  day  carving  with  a 
broken  knife-blade  a  spoon  from  a  block  of  hard 
wood.  Sporadic  wood-splitting  is  going  on,  and 
cooking  appears  to  be  one  of  the  fine  arts.  An 
hour  daily  of  oral  exercises  in  French,  German, 
Spanish,  Latin,  or  Italian,  under  competent 
teachers,  after  the  Sauveur  or  Berlitz  method, 
amused  and  to  some  extent  instructed  many. 
Our  cavalry  adjutant,  Dutch  Clark,  so  called  from 
his  skill  in  the  "Pennsylvania  Dutch"  dialect 
made  perhaps  a  hundred  familiar  with  the  morn 
ing  salutation,  "  Haben  Sie  gut  geschlafen?"  ("Have 
you  slept  well?")  Lieut.  Henry  Vander  Weyde, 
A.  D.  C.,  1st  Div.,  6th  Corps,  the  artist  chum  of 
our  principal  German  instructor,  amused  many  by 
his  pencil  portraits  of  "Slim  Jim, "  the  nondescript 
"roll-call  sergeant"  of  uncertain  age  and  gender; 
also  of  some  of  the  sentries,  and  one  or  two  of  his 
fellow  prisoners.  A  worn-out  pack  of  fifty-two 


102  Lights  and  Shadows 

cards,  two  or  three  chess  and  checker  boards  of 
our  manufacture,  and  twenty-four  rudely  carved 
checker-men  and  thirty- two  fantastic  chess-men, 
furnished  frequent  amusement  to  those  who  un 
derstood  the  games. 

On  an  average  once  in  two  days  we  received 
about  one  o'clock  what  was  called  soup.  We 
were  told,  and  we  believed  it  to  be  true,  that  all 
the  rich  nitrogenous  portion  had  been  carefully 
skimmed  off  for  use  elsewhere;  not  thrown  away 
as  the  fresh  maid  threw  the  "scum"  that  formed 
on  top  of  the  milk! 

The  topic  of  most  frequent  discussion  was  the 
prospect  of  an  exchange  of  prisoners.  Our  would- 
be  German  conversationalists  never  forgot  to 
ask,  "HabenSie  etwas  gehorten  von  Auswechseln  der 
Gefangenen?"  ("Have  you  heard  anything  of 
exchange  of  prisoners?")  It  was  hard  to  believe 
that  our  government  would  leave  us  to  die  of 
starvation. 

At  the  close  of  the  soup  hour  and  after  another 
turn  at  sweeping,  almost  every  officer  again  sat 
down  or  sat  up  to  rid  himself  of  the  peculida  vesti- 
menti.  We  called  it  "skirmishing";  it  was  rather 
a  pitched  battle.  The  humblest  soldier  and  the 
brevet  major-general  must  daily  strip  and  fight. 
Ludicrous,  were  it  not  so  abominable,  was  this 


In  Confederate  Prisons  103 

mortifying  necessity.  No  account  of  prison  life 
in  Danville  would  be  complete  without  it.  Pass 
by  it  hereafter  in  sorrow  and  silence,  as  one  of 
those  duties  which  Cicero  says  are  to  be  done 
but  not  talked  about. 

The  occupations  of  the  morning  are  now  largely 
resumed,  but  many  prefer  to  lie  quiet  on  the  floor 
for  an  hour. 

An  interesting  incident  that  might  happen  at 
any  time  is  the  arrival  in  prison  of  a  Confederate 
newspaper.  A  commotion  near  the  stairway! 
Fifty  or  a  hundred  cluster  around  an  officer  with  a 
clear  strong  voice,  and  listen  as  he  reads  aloud 
the  news,  the  editorials,  and  the  selections.  The 
rebels  are  represented  as  continually  gaming 
victories,  but  singularly  enough  the  northern 
armies  are  always  drawing  nearer! 

Toward  sunset  many  officers  walk  briskly  half  an 
hour  to  and  fro  the  length  of  the  room  for  exercise. 

Another  roll-call  by  the  mysterious  hetero 
geneous  if  not  hermaphroditical  Carolina  sergeant ! 

Brooms  again  by  the  mess  on  duty.  Again 
oral  language-lessons  by  Cook  and  Putnam.  Then 
discussions  or  story-telling. 

It  is  growing  dark.  A  candle  is  lighted  making 
darkness  visible.  We  have  many  skilful  singers, 
who  every  evening  "discourse  most  excellent 


Lights  and  Shadows 

music."  They  sing  Just  before  the  battle,  mother; 
Do  they  miss  me  at  home?  We  shall  meet,  but 
we  shall  miss  him  (a  song  composed  on  the  death 
of  one  of  my  Worcester  pupils  by  Hon.  Charles 
Washburn) ;  Nearer,  My  God,  to  thee,  etc.  From 
the  sweet  strains  of  affection  or  devotion,  which 
suffuse  the  eyes  as  we  begin  to  lie  down  for  the 
night,  the  music  passes  to  the  Star-spangled  Ban 
ner,  Rally  round  the  flag,  John  Brown's  body  lies 
a  mouldering  in  the  grave,  and  the  like.  Often  the 
"concert"  concludes  with  a  comic  Dutch  song  by 
Captain  Cafferty,  Co.  D,  ist  N.  Y.  Cav. 

Sleep  begins  to  seal  many  eyelids,  when  some 
one  with  a  loud  voice  heard  through  the  whole 
room  starts  a  series  of  sharp  critical  questions, 

amusing  or  censorious,  thus: 

/* 

"Who  don't  skirmish?"  This  is  answered 
loudly  from  another  quarter. 

"Slim  Jim."  The  catechism  proceeds,  some 
times  with  two  or  three  distinct  responses. 

"Who  cheats  the  graveyard?" 

"  Colonel  Sprague." 

"Who  sketched  Fort  Darling?" 

"Captain  Tripp."  (He  was  caught  sketching 
long  before,  and  was  refused  exchange.) 

"Who  never  washes?" 


In  Confederate  Prisons  105 

"  Lieutenant  Screw-my-upper- jaw-off."  (His  was 
an  unpronounceable  foreign  name.) 

"Who  knows  everything?" 

"General  Duffle."  (Duffle  was  a  brave  officer, 
of  whom  more  anon.) 

"Who  don't  know  anything?" 

"The  fools  that  talk  when  they  should  be 
asleep. "  (The  querists  subside  at  last.) 

For  warmth  we  He  in  contact  with  each  other 
"spoon-fashion,"  in  groups  of  three  or  more.  I 
had  bought  a  heavy  woolen  shawl  for  twenty 
Confederate  dollars,  and  under  it  were  Captain 
Cook,  Adjutant  Clark,  and  Lieutenant  Wilder;  I 
myself  wearing  my  overcoat,  and  snuggling  up  to 
my  friend  Cook.  All  four  lay  as  close  as  possible 
facing  in  the  same  direction.  The  night  wears 
slowly  away.  When  the  floor  seemed  intolerably 
hard,  one  of  us  would  say  aloud,  "Spoon!"  and 
all  four  would  flop  over,  and  rest  on  the  other  side. 
So  we  vibrated  back  and  forth  from  nine  o'clock 
till  dawn.  We  were  not  comfortable,  but  in  far 
better  circumstances  than  most  of  the  prisoners. 
Indeed  Captain  Cook  repeatedly  declared  he  owed 
his  life  to  our  blanket. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

Continual  Hope  of  Exchange  of  Prisoners — "Flag-of -Truce 
Fever!" — Attempted  Escape  by  Tunneling — Repeated 
Escapes  by  Members  of  Water  Parties,  and  how  we  Made 
the  Roll-Call  Sergeant's  Count  Come  Out  all  Right  every 
Time — Plot  to  Break  Out  by  Violence,  and  its  Tragic  End. 

OUR  principal  hope  for  relief  from  the  increas 
ing  privations  of  prison  life  and  from  prob 
able  exhaustion,  sickness,  and  death,  lay  in  a 
possible  exchange  of  prisoners.  A  belief  was 
prevalent  that  the  patients  in  hospital  would  be 
the  first  so  favored.  Hence  strenuous  efforts  were 
sometimes  made  to  convince  the  apothecary 
whom  we  called  doctor,  and  who  often  visited 
us,  that  a  prisoner  was  ill  enough  to  require 
removal.  Once  in  the  institution,  the  patients  got 
better  food,  something  like  a  bed,  medical  attend 
ance  daily,  and  a  more  comfortable  room.  Some 
of  them  were  shamming,  lying  in  two  senses  and 
groaning  when  the  physicians  were  present,  but 
able  to  sit  up  and  play  euchre  the  rest  of  the  day 
and  half  the  night.  This  peculiar  disease,  this 

eagerness  to  get  into  hospital  or  remain  there  till 

106 


In  Confederate  Prisons  107 

exchanged  by  flag  of  truce,  was  known  as  the 
"flag-of -truce  fever"  or  "  flag-of-truce-on-the- 
brain!" 

I  recall  one  striking  instance.  Lieutenant  Gard 
ner,  already  mentioned,  had  received  six  or  eight 
hundred  dollars  in  Confederate  currency  as  the 
price  of  a  gold  watch.  But  like  the  prodigal  in 
Scripture  he  was  now  in  a  far  country,  and  had 
wasted  his  substance  in  what  he  called  " righteous" 
living.  And  when  he  had  spent  all,  there  arose 
a  mighty  famine  in  that  corner  of  the  lower  room, 
and  he  began  to  be  in  want.  And  he  would  fain 
have  rilled  his  belly  with  corn-cob-meal  bread,  or 
spoiled  black  beans,  or  the  little  potatoes  which 
the  swine  didn't  eat.  And  no  man  gave  him 
enough.  And  he  determined  to  go  to  hospital. 
He  gave  out  that  he  was  desperately  sick.  I  at 
this  time  had  "quarters"  on  the  floor  above. 
Word  was  brought  to  me  that  my  friend  was  mor 
tally  ill,  and  would  thank  me  to  come  down  and 
take  his  last  message  to  his  relatives.  Alarmed,  I 
instantly  went  down.  I  found  him  with  two  or 
three  splitting  a  small  log  of  wood ! 

"Gardner,  I  hear  you  are  a  little  'under  the 
weather.'" 

"Dying,  Colonel,  dying!" 


io8  Lights  and  Shadows 

"What  appears  to  be  your  disease?" 

"  Flag-o'-truce-on-the-brain ! " 

"Ah,  you've  got  the  exchange  fever?" 

"Yes;  bad." 

"Pulse  run  high?" 

"Three  hundred  a  minute." 

"Anything  I  can  do  for  you?" 

"Yes,  Colonel,  beseech  that  fool  doctor  to  send 
me  to  hospital.  Tell  him  I'm  on  my  last  legs. 
Tell  him  I  only  want  to  die  there.  Appeal  to  him 
in  behalf  of  my  poor  wife  and  babies. "  (Gardner, 
as  I  well  knew,  was  a  bachelor,  and  had  no  chil 
dren — to  speak  of.) 

"Well,  Lieutenant,  I'll  do  anything  I  properly 
can  for  you.  Is  there  anything  else?" 

"Yes,  Colonel;  lend  me  your  overcoat  to  wear 
to  hospital;  I'll  send  it  back  at  once." 

"But,  Lieutenant,  you  can't  get  into  the  hospital. 
Your  cheeks  are  too  rosy;  you're  the  picture  of 
health." 

"I'm  glad  you  mentioned  that,  Colonel.  I'll  fix 
that.  You'll  see." 

Next  morning  he  watched  at  the  window,  and 
when  he  saw  the  doctor  coming,  he  swallowed  a 
large  pill  of  plug  tobacco.  The  effect  was  more 
serious  than  he  expected.  In  a  few  minutes  he 


In  Confederate  Prisons  109 

became  sick  in  earnest,  and  was  frightened.  A 
deathlike  pallor  supervened.  When  the  doctor 
reached  him,  there  was  a  genuine  fit  of  vomiting. 
The  story  runs  that  Captain  Tiemann  made  a 
pathetic  appeal  in  behalf  of  the  imaginary  twin 
babies,  that  the  doctor  diagnosed  it  as  a  clear  case 
of  puerperal  (which  he  pronounced  "puerperial") 
fever  complicated  with  symptoms  of  cholera 
infantum,  and  ordered  him  to  hospital  at  once! 
I  loaned  the  patient  my  overcoat,  which  he  sent 
back  directly.  His  recovery  seemed  miraculous. 
In  a  week  or  two  he  returned  from  his  delightful 
outing.  This  was  in  the  latter  part  of  November. 
Previously,  for  some  weeks,  Captain  Howe  and 
three  or  four  other  strong  and  determined  officers 
managed  to  get  into  the  cellar  of  a  one-story  build 
ing  contiguous  to  ours  and  thence  to  excavate  a 
tunnel  out  beyond  the  line  on  which  the  sentinels 
were  perpetually  pacing  to  and  fro.  I  was  too 
feeble  to  join  in  the  enterprise,  but  hoped  to 
improve  the  opportunity  to  escape  when  the  work 
was  done.  Unfortunately  the  arching  top  of  the 
tunnel  was  too  near  the  surface  of  the  ground,  and 
the  thin  crust  gave  way  under  the  weight  of  a 
sentry.  He  yelled  "Murder!"  Two  or  three  of 
our  diggers  came  scurrying  back.  The  guard 
next  to  him  shouted,  "You  Yanks!  you  G — d 


no  Lights  and  Shadows 

d — d  Yanks!"  and  fired  into  the  deep  hole.     No 
more  tunneling  at  Danville.1 

More  successful  and  more  amusing  were  several 
attempts  by  individual  officers  one  at  a  time.  The 
water  parties  of  four  to  eight  went  under  a  strong 
guard  two  or  three  times  a  day  down  a  long  hill  to 
the  river  Dan.  On  the  slope  alongside  the  path 
were  a  number  of  large  brick  ovens,2  in  which, 
we  were  told,  the  Confederates  used  to  bake  those 
big  squares  of  corn  bread.  The  iron  doors  when 
we  passed  were  usually  open.  On  the  way  back 
from  the  river,  one  officer  on  some  pretense  or 
other  would  lag  behind  the  rearmost  soldier  of  the 
guard,  who  would  turn  to  hurry  him  up.  The  next 
officer,  as  soon  as  the  soldier's  back  was  turned, 
would  dodge  into  an  open  oven,  and  the  careless 
guards  now  engaged  in  a  loud  and  passionate 
controversy  about  slavery  or  secession  would  not 

1  "You  will  doubtless  recall  the  man-hole  worked  through  the 
heavy  brick  wall,  made  during  the  'stilly  nights, '  opening  into  the 
attic  of  an  annex  to  the  main  building.     We  found  our  way  down 
by  means  of  a  rope  ladder,  and  started  our  tunnel  under  the 
basement  floor.     But  for  the  exposure  we  would  have  emptied 
the  prison.  To  find  the  way  down  we  gave  them  a  lively  hunt! — 
And  those  epithets! — I  have  a  blouse  with  a  rent  in  the  back  made 
in  going  through  that  hole  in  the  wall." — Howe's  Letter  of  Jan.  30, 
1914. 

For  further  particulars  of  this  attempt  to  tunnel  out,  see  Major 
Putnam's  A  Prisoner  of  War  in  Virginia,  pp.  55-60. 

2  Putnam  describes  them  as  disused  furnaces.     They  may  have 
been  both. 


In  Confederate  Prisons  in 

miss  him!  Then,  as  night  came  on,  the  negroes 
in  the  vicinity,  who,  like  all  the  rest  of  the  colored 
people,  were  friendly  to  us,  would  supply  the 
escaped  officer  with  food  and  clothing,  and  pilot 
him  on  his  way  rejoicing  toward  the  Union  lines. 
One  by  one,  six  officers  escaped  in  that  way,  and 
many  of  us  began  to  look  forward  to  the  time  when 
our  turn  would  come  to  try  the  baking  virtues 
of  those  ovens! 

But  it  was  important  that  the  escaped  officer 
should  not  be  missed.  How  should  we  deceive  the 
nondescript  that  we  called  "  the  roll-call  sergeant"? 
Morning  and  evening  he  carefully  counted  every 
one.  How  make  the  census  tally  with  the  former 
enumerations?  Yankee  ingenuity  was  here  put  to 
a  severe  test;  but  Lieutenant  Titus,  before  men 
tioned,  solved  the  problem.  With  his  table-knife 
saw  he  cut  a  hole  about  two  feet  square  in  the  floor 
near  the  northeast  corner  of  the  upper  room.  A 
nicely  fitting  trapdoor  completed  the  arrange 
ment.  Through  this  hole,  helped  by  a  rude  rope 
ladder  of  strips  of  rags,  and  hoisted  to  the  shoul 
ders  of  a  tall  man  by  strong  arms  from  below,  a 
nimble  officer  could  quickly  ascend.  Now  those 
in  the  lower  room  were  counted  first.  When 
they  broke  ranks,  and  the  human  automaton 
faced  to  the  west  and  moved  slowly  towards  the 


H2  Lights  and  Shadows 

stairs  with  three  or  four  "Yanks"  clustering  at  his 
side  in  earnest  conversation,  the  requisite  number 
of  spry  young  prisoners  would  "shin  up"  the 
ladder,  emerge,  "deploy,"  and  be  counted  over 
again  in  the  upper  room!  The  thing  worked  to  a 
charm.  Not  one  of  the  six  was  missed. 

Unfortunately,  however,  two  or  three  of  them 
were  recaptured  and  again  incarcerated  in  Libby. 
The  Richmond  authorities  thereupon  telegraphed 
to  Colonel  Smith,  asking  how  those  officers  es 
caped  from  Danville.  Smith,  surprised,  ordered 
a  recount.  The  trapdoor  did  its  duty.  "All 
present ! "  Finally  he  answered,  "No  prisoner  has 
escaped  from  Danville."  The  rebel  commissary 
of  prisons  at  Richmond,  Gen.  J.  H.  Winder,  then 
telegraphed  the  names  of  the  recaptured  officers. 
Smith  looks  on  his  books:  there  are  those  names, 
sure  enough!  The  mystery  must  be  solved.  He 
now  sends  his  adjutant  to  count  us  about  noon. 
We  asked  him  what  it  meant.  He  told  us  it  was 
reported  that  several  officers  had  escaped.  We 
replied,  "That's  too  good  to  be  true."  He 
counted  very  slowly  and  with  extraordinary  preci 
sion.  He  kept  his  eye  on  the  staircase  as  he 
approached  it.  Six  officers  flew  up  the  ladder  as 
we  huddled  around  him.  It  was  almost  impossible 
to  suppress  laughter  at  the  close,  when  he  de- 


In  Confederate  Prisons  113 

clared,  "I'll  take  my  oath  no  prisoner  has  escaped 
from  this  prison. "  But  there  were  those  names  of 
the  missing,  and  there  was  our  ill-disguised  mirth. 
Smith  resorted  to  heroic  measures.  He  came  in 
with  two  or  three  of  his  staff  and  a  man  who  was 
said  to  be  a  professor  of  mathematics.  This  was 
on  the  8th  of  November,  1864.  He  made  all 
officers  of  the  lower  room  move  for  a  half-hour 
into  the  upper  room,  and  there  fall  in  line  with  the 
rest.  His  adjutant  called  the  roll  in  reality. 
Each  as  his  name  was  read  aloud  was  made  to  step 
forward  and  cross  to  the  other  side.  Of  course  no 
one  could  answer  for  the  absent  six.  I  doubt  if  he 
ever  learned  the  secret  of  that  trap-door.  The 
professor  of  mathematics  promised  to  bring  me 
a  Geometry.  About  two  weeks  later,  Novem 
ber  24th,  he  brought  me  a  copy  of  Davies's 
Legendre. 

On  the  9th  of  December,  while  our  senior  officer, 
General  Hayes,  was  sick  in  hospital,  the  next  in 
rank,  Gen.  A.  N.  Duffie,  of  the  First  Cavalry 
Division  of  Sheridan's  army,  fresh  from  the  French 
service,  with  which  he  had  campaigned  in  Algeria, 
where  he  was  wounded  nine  times,  suddenly  con 
ceived  a  plot  to  break  out  and  escape.  Two  com 
panies  of  infantry  had  arrived  in  the  forenoon 
and  stacked  their  arms  in  plain  sight  on  the  level 


ii4  Lights  and  Shadows 

ground  about  twenty  rods  distant.  Duffi6's  plan 
was  to  rush  through  the  large  open  door  when 
a  water  party  returning  with  filled  buckets  should 
be  entering,  seize  those  muskets,  overpower  the 
guard,  immediately  liberate  the  thousand  or 
fifteen  hundred  Union  prisoners  in  the  three  other 
Danville  prisons,  and  push  off  to  our  lines  in  East 
Tennessee.  He  had  Sheridan's  elan,  not  Grant's 
cool-headed  strategy.  With  proper  preparation 
and  organization,  such  as  Hayes  would  have 
insisted  upon,  it  might  have  been  a  success.  He 
called  us,  field  officers  about  twenty,  together  and 
laid  the  matter  before  us.  No  vote  was  taken,  but 
I  think  a  majority  were  opposed  to  the  whole 
scheme.  He  was  disposed  to  consider  himself, 
though  a  prisoner,  as  still  vested  with  authority  to 
command  all  of  lower  rank,  and  he  expected  them 
to  obey  him  without  question.  In  this  view 
many  acquiesced,  but  others  dissented.  By  his 
request,  though  doubtful  of  his  right  to  command 
and  in  feeble  health,  I  drew  up  a  pledge  for  those 
to  sign  who  were  willing  to  engage  in  the  projected 
rising  and  would  promise  to  obey.  It  was  found 
that  at  least  one  hundred  and  fifty  could  be 
counted  on.  Colonel  Ralston,  previously  men 
tioned,  was  the  chief  opponent  of  the  outbreak,  but 
he  recognized  Duffie's  authority  and  insisted  upon 


In  Confederate  Prisons  115 

our  submission  to  it.  Similar  appeared  to  be  the 
attitude  of  the  following  colonels: 

Gilbert  H.  Prey,  io4th  N.  Y. 

James  Carle,  iQist  Pa. 

T.  B.  Kaufman,  2Oo,th  Pa. 

W.  Ross  Hartshorne,  iQOth  Pa. 

Of  the  lieutenant-colonels,  most  of  the  following 
doubted  the  success,  but  would  do  their  best  to 
promote  it,  if  commanded: 

Charles  H.  Tay,  loth  N.  J. 

Theodore  Gregg,  45th  Pa. 

G.  A.  Moffett,  94th  N.  Y. 

J.  S.  Warner,  I2ist  Pa. 

George  Hamett,  I47th  N.  Y. 

Charles  H.  Hooper,  24th  Mass. 

Homer  B.  Sprague,  I3th  Conn. 

So  the  following  majors:  A.  W.  Wakefield,  49th 
Pa.;  G.  S.  Horton,  58th  Mass.;  E.  F.  Cooke,  2d 
N.  Y.  Cav.;  John  G.  Wright,  5ist  N.  Y.;  J.  V. 
Peale,  4th  Pa.  Cav.;  John  W.  Byron,  88th  N.  Y.; 
David  Sadler,  2d  Pa.  Heavy  Art.;  John  Byrne, 
1 55th  N.  Y.;  E.  O.  Shepard,  32d  Mass.;  J.  A. 
Senders,  8th  Ohio  Cav.;  Charles  P.  Mattocks, 
1 7th  Maine;  E.  S.  Moore,  Paymaster;  Wm.  H. 
Fry,  i6th  Pa.  Cav.;  Milton  Wendler,  I9ist  Pa.; 
James  E.  Deakins,  8th  Tenn.  Cav.;  Geo.  Haven 
Putnam,  Adjt.  and  later  Bvt.- Major,  iy6th  N.  Y. 


n6  Lights  and  Shadows 

All  of  the  foregoing  then  present  and  not  on  the 
sick  list  should  have  been  most  thoroughly  in 
structed  as  to  their  duties,  and  should  have  been  en 
abled  to  communicate  all  needed  information  to  the 
forty-six  captains  and  one  hundred  and  thirty-three 
lieutenants,  who,  though  many  were  sadly  reduced 
in  vitality,  were  accounted  fit  for  active  service.  I 
had  repeatedly  noticed  in  battle  the  perplexity  of 
company,  regimental,  or  even  brigade  commanders, 
from  lack  of  information  as  to  the  necessary  move 
ments  in  unforeseen  emergencies.  It  is  not  enough  to 
say,  as  one  corps  commander  (Hancock?)  is  said  to 
have  done  during  the  Battle  of  the  Wilderness  in 
May,  1864,  to  a  newly  arrived  colonel  with  his  regi 
ment,  who  inquired,  "Where  shall  I  go  in?"  "Oh, 
anywhere;  there's  lovely  fighting  all  along  the  line!" 

Here  the  step  most  vital  to  success,  the  sine  qua 
non,  was  to  keep  that  outside  door  open  for  the 
outrush  of  two  hundred  men.  To  this  end,  eight 
of  our  strongest  and  most  determined,  under  a 
dashing  leader  like  Colonel  Hartshorne  or  Lieu 
tenant-Colonel  Gregg,  should  have  been  sent  out 
as  a  water  party.  Instead,  Captain  Cook,  who 
was  brave  enough,  but  then  physically  weak, 
hardly  able  to  carry  a  pail  of  water,  was  the  leader 
of  an  average  small  squad,  "the  spirit  indeed 
willing,  but  the  flesh  weak. " 


In  Confederate  Prisons  117 

Hardly  less  important  was  it  to  select  a  dozen 
or  twenty  of  the  most  fierce  and  energetic,  to  be 
at  the  head  of  the  stairs  in  perfect  readiness  to 
dash  instantly  through  the  opening  door  and 
assist  the  water  party  in  disarming  their  guards, 
and,  without  a  moment's  pause,  followed  by  the 
whole  two  hundred,  pounce  upon  the  guard  house. 
Ralston  or  Duffie  himself  should  have  headed 
this  band.  Simultaneously,  without  a  second's 
interval,  three  or  four  desperate,  fiery,  powerful 
officers,  detailed  for  the  purpose,  should  have 
grappled  with  the  sentinel  on  duty  in  the  middle 
of  the  lower  room  and  disarmed  and  gagged  him. 

Besides  the  field  officers,  we  had  with  us  many 
subordinates  of  great  intelligence  like  Capt. 
Henry  S.  Burrage  of  the  36th  Mass.,  Lieut.  W.  C. 
B.  Goff  of  the  ist  D.  C.  Cav.,  Lieut.  W.  C. 
Howe,  2d  Mass.  Cav.,  Adjt.  James  A.  Clark,  I7th 
Pa.  Cav.,  and  the  artist,  Lieut.  Henry  Vander 
Weyde;  and  nothing  would  have  been  easier  than 
for  Duffie  to  communicate  through  them  to  every 
officer  the  most  complete  and  precise  information 
and  instructions. 

Scarcely  any  of  these  precautions  were  taken. 
The  general  was  impatient.  The  next  day,  Decem 
ber  loth,  he  issued  his  command  in  these  words :  "  I 
order  the  attempt  to  be  made,  and  I  call  upon  all 


ii8  Lights  and  Shadows 

of  you,  who  have  not  forgotten  how  to  obey  orders, 
to  follow."  The  water  party  was  immediately 
sent  out,  and  its  return  was  watched  for.  He  and 
Ralston,  without  the  help  of  a  third,  made  the 
mistake  of  personally  grappling  with  the  floor 
sentry,  a  brave,  strong,  red-headed  fellow,  and 
they  tackled  him  a  moment  too  soon.  He  stoutly 
resisted.  They  wrested  his  musket  from  him. 
He  yelled.  They  tried  to  stop  his  mouth.  In 
stantly  the  door  began  to  swing  open  a  little. 
The  water  party,  too  few  and  too  weak,  paralyzed, 
failed  to  act.  The  foremost  of  us  sprang  from  the 
stairs  to  the  door.  Before  we  could  reach  it,  it  was 
slammed  to,  bolted  and  barred  against  us!  With 
several  others  I  rushed  to  the  windows  and  tried  to 
tear  off  the  heavy  bars.  In  vain.  The  soldiers 
outside  began  firing  through  the  broken  panes. 
Ralston  was  shot  through  the  body.  We  assisted 
him  up  the  stairs  while  the  bullets  were  flying. 
In  less  than  five  minutes  from  the  moment  when 
he  and  Duffie  seized  the  sentinel,  it  was  all  over. 
In  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour,  Colonel  Smith  came 
in  with  his  adjutant  and  two  or  three  guards,  and 
ordered  Ralston  removed  to  hospital.  As  he  was 
carried  out,  one  of  us  expressed  the  hope  that 
the  wound  was  not  serious.  He  answered  in  the 
language  of  Mercutio,  "No,  'tis  not  so  deep  as  a 


In  Confederate  Prisons  119 

well,  nor  so  wide  as  a  church  door;  but  'tis  enough, 
'twill  serve."  He  knew  it  was  mortal,  and 
expressed  a  willingness  to  die  for  his  country  in  the 
line  of  duty.  He  passed  away  next  morning. 
Colonel  Smith  expressed  sorrow  for  him,  and  sur 
prise  at  the  ingratitude  of  us  who  had  been  guilty 
of  insurrection  against  his  gentle  sway ! 

A  strict  search  for  possible  weapons  followed 
during  which  we  were  told  we  must  give  up  our 
United  States  money.  I  saved  a  ten -dollar  green 
back  by  concealing  it  in  my  mouth  "as  an  ape 
doth  nuts  in  the  corner  of  his  jaw,"  all  the  while 
munching  corn  bread,  gnawing  two  holes  in  the  bill ! 


CHAPTER  IX 

Kind  Clergymen  Visit  us  and  Preach  Excellent  Discourses — 
Colonel  Smith's  Personal  Good  Will  to  me — His  Offer— John 
F.  Ficklin's  Charity — My  Good  Fortune — Supplies  of 
Clothing  Distributed — Deaths  in  Prison. 

UNION  men  never  looked  upon  Confederates 
as  mortal  enemies.  Whenever  a  flag  of  truce 
was  flying,  both  were  disposed  to  shake  hands 
and  exchange  favors.  I  recollect  that  our  Cap 
tain  Burrage  complained  that  he  was  unfairly 
captured  when  he  was  engaged  in  a  friendly  deal 
with  a  Confederate  between  the  lines.  At  Port 
Hudson,  when  the  white  signal  was  to  go  down,  we 
gave  the  "Johnnies"  fair  warning,  shouting, 
"RATS!  TO  YOUR  HOLES!"  before  we  fired  on  them. 
But  war  cannot  be  conducted  on  peace  principles, 
and  in  a  flash  a  man  acts  like  a  devil.  In  an  open 
window  near  the  spot  where  I  slept,  an  officer  upset 
a  cup  of  water,  and  a  few  drops  fell  on  the  head 
of  the  guard  outside.  Instantly  he  fired.  The 
bullet  missed,  passed  through  the  window  below 
and  the  floor  above,  and  lodged  in  the  hand  or  arm 
of  another  officer.  I  had  an  opportunity  to  express 

120 


In  Confederate  Prisons  121 

to  Colonel  Smith  my  angry  disgust  at  such  sav 
agery.  He  agreed  that  the  fellow  ought  to  be 
punished — "at  least  for  not  being  able  to  shoot 
straighter!"1 

Kindly  visits  were  sometimes  paid  us.  Two 
young  men  from  the  Richmond  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  came.  The  wicked  said, 
"One  came  'to  pray  with  us  all  right,'  the  other 
'to  prey  upon  us  all  wrong'";  for  the  latter  tried 
to  induce  us  to  exchange  greenbacks  for  rebel 
currency ! 

Several  times  we  were  visited  by  kind  clergy 
men  who  preached  excellent  sermons.  The  first 
was  Rev.—  -  Dame  of  Danville.  He  was,  I  think, 
an  Episcopal  minister.  He  was  a  high  Mason,  a 
gentleman  of  very  striking  appearance,  with  a 
beautiful  flowing  beard,  that  would  have  done 
honor  to  Moses  or  Aaron.  As  we  sat  on  the  hard 
floor,  two  hundred  listening  reverently  to  his  choice 
language,  he  seemed  to  foresee  the  doom  which 
many  of  us  had  begun  to  fear,  and  he  very  appropri 
ately  and  with  much  earnestness  bade  us  consider 
our  latter  end.  Mentioning  his  name  with  grati 
tude  some  thirty  years  afterwards  in  a  lecture 
at  the  Mountain  Lake  Chautauqua,  Md.,  one  of 

1  See  Putnam's  account  of  this  incident  in  his  A  Prisoner  of 
War  in  Virginia,  p.  67. 


122  Lights  and  Shadows 

my  audience  gave  me  a  photograph  of  the  minis 
ter's  handsome  face,  and  told  me  he  was  greatly 
beloved.  I  doubt  not  he  deserved  it. 

Rev.  Charles  K.  Hall  of  Danville,  a  Methodist 
Episcopal  clergyman,  came  to  us  a  little  later. 
His  first  sermon  was  an  eloquent  discourse  on 
Charity.  He  practiced  what  he  preached;  for  he 
never  came  empty-handed.  On  his  first  visit  he 
brought  armfuls  of  tobacco,  each  plug  wrapped  in 
a  pious  tract.  He  asked  us  to  fall  in  line,  for  he 
had  something  for  each.  When  he  came  to  me  in 
the  distribution,  I  declined  it,  saying  "I  never 
use  tobacco  in  any  form. "  "  Oh  take  it, "  said  he; 
"you  read  the  tract,  and  give  the  tobacco  to  your 
neighbor."  On  subsequent  Sundays  he  brought 
eggs  and  other  delicacies  for  the  sick.  We  admired 
him  as  a  preacher,  and  regarded  him  with  affection 
as  a  man.  Secession  and  slavery  aside,  for  he 
believed  in  the  rightfulness  of  both,  as  we  learned 
on  arguing  with  him,  it  would  be  hard  to  find  a 
more  lovable  character  than  Charles  K.  Hall. 
And  the  South  was  full  of  such,  who  would  have 
been  glad,  if  permitted  and  opportunity  offered, 
to  be  good  Samaritans,  neighbors  to  him  who  had 
fallen  among  foes;  pure,  gentle,  kindly  spirits,  to 
whom  it  will  be  said  in  the  last  great  day,  "I  was 
an  hungred  and  ye  gave  me  meat ;  I  was  sick,  and 


In  Confederate  Prisons  123 

ye  visited  me ;  I  was  in  prison,  and  ye  came  unto 
me." 

From  the  lack  of  sufficient  and  proper  food, 
clothing,  and  exercise,  the  health  of  all  suffered. 
Much  of  the  time  it  was  impossible  to  keep  warm. 
The  most  prevalent  diseases,  I  think,  were 
rheumatism  and  scurvy.  I  suffered  from  both. 
Anti-scorbutics  were  scarce.  The  pain  from  rheu 
matism  was  slight  during  the  day;  but  at  evening 
it  began  in  the  joints  of  the  fingers  and  became 
more  severe  as  night  advanced,  ascending  from 
the  hands  to  the  wrists,  arms,  and  shoulders.  It 
was  worst  at  midnight  and  through  the  small 
hours,  then  gradually  diminished  till  daylight. 
The  prison  physician  did  his  best  to  help  us  with 
liniment,  but  in  those  winter  nights  the  treat 
ment  was  ineffective. 

Upon  the  total  failure  of  our  attempt  to  break 
out  on  the  loth  of  December,  and  having  come 
reluctantly  to  the  conclusion  that  Colonel  Smith 
had  told  us  the  truth  when  he  said  that  Lincoln 
and  Grant  would  not  consent  to  an  exchange  of 
prisoners,  I  foresaw  that  death  was  inevitable  after 
a  few  months,  perhaps  a  few  weeks,  unless  the 
situation  should  materially  change  for  the  better. 
I  determined,  though  without  much  hope  of  suc 
cess,  to  appeal  to  Colonel  Smith  for  personal 


124  Lights  and  Shadows 

favor.  On  the  I5th  of  December  I  sent  word  to 
him  that  I  wished  an  interview  with  him.  He 
immediately  sent  a  soldier  to  bring  me  to  his 
office.  He  received  me  courteously;  for  he  was  a 
gentleman.  I  told  him  it  was  necessary  for  me, 
if  I  was  to  live  much  longer,  that  I  should  at  least 
have  better  food  and  more  of  it.  I  asked  him  if 
it  would  not  be  possible  for  an  arrangement  to  be 
effected  whereby  some  of  my  relatives  in  the  north 
should  furnish  a  Confederate  prisoner  with  food, 
clothing,  and  comforts,  and  that  prisoner's  rela 
tives  in  the  south  should  reciprocate  by  supplying 
me.  He  answered  that  it  might  be  possible,  but 
he  did  not  know  of  any  such  southern  captive's 
friends  likely  to  respond.  After  a  few  minutes  of 
silence  he  said : 

"Colonel  Sprague,  I'd  like  to  do  something  for 
you,  and  I'll  make  you  an  offer. " 

"Well?" 

"Your  government  has  adopted  the  devilish 
policy  of  no  exchange  of  prisoners. " 

"I  am  afraid  it's  true." 

"I  know  it's  true." 

"Well,  what's  your  proposition?" 

"  I  am  overworked  here.  I  must  do  my  duty  to 
my  government.  Our  cause  is  just. " 

"Well?" 


In  Confederate  Prisons  125 

"I  should  like  to  have  you  assist  me  by  doing 
writing  regularly  for  me  at  these  headquarters.  I 
would  parole  you.  You  shall  have  a  room  to  your 
self,  a  good  bed,  plenty  of  food,  and  a  good  deal  of 
liberty.  You  must  give  me  your  word  of  honor 
not  to  attempt  to  escape." 

"Colonel  Smith,  I  thank  you.  I  appreciate  the 
friendly  spirit  in  which  you  make  the  offer,  and  I 
am  very  grateful  for  it.  But  I  can't  conscien 
tiously  accept  it.  I  am  in  the  Union  Army,  bound 
to  do  everything  in  my  power  to  destroy  your 
government.  I  must  do  nothing  to  help  it.  If 
Lincoln  refuses  to  exchange  us  prisoners,  it  may 
be  best  for  the  United  States,  though  hard  on  us. 
What  happens  to  us  is  a  minor  matter.  It's  a 
soldier's  business  to  die  for  his  country  rather  than 
help  its  enemies  in  the  slightest  degree.  I  can't 
entertain  your  proposal." 

So  the  conference  ended  sadly.  As  I  was  leav 
ing  his  office  he  introduced  me  to  a  Confederate 
soldier  who  sat  there  and  who  had  heard  the  whole 
conversation.  Next  day  this  soldier  entered  the 
prison  by  permission  of  Colonel  Smith  and  brought 
me  some  nice  wheat  bread,  some  milk,  pickles,  and 
other  food,  a  pair  of  thick  woolen  stockings,  and  a 
hundred  dollars  in  Confederate  money.  He  gave 
me  his  name,  John  F.  Ficklin,  of  the  Virginia 


126  Lights  and  Shadows 

Black  Horse  Cavalry.  He  whispered  to  me  that 
he  was  at  heart  a  Union  man,  but  had  been  forced 
by  circumstances  to  enter  the  Confederate  service ; 
that  by  simulating  illness  he  had  got  relieved  from 
duty  at  the  front  and  assigned  to  service  at  Colonel 
Smith's  headquarters;  that  he  was  confident  he 
could  bring  about  such  an  arrangement  for  re 
ciprocal  supplies  as  I  had  proposed,  and  had  so 
informed  Smith,  who  approved  of  the  plan;  that 
until  such  a  plan  should  be  put  in  operation  he 
would  furnish  me  from  his  own  table.  He  said 
to  me  very  privately  that  he  was  greatly  moved  by 
what  I  had  said  the  day  before.  "  But, "  he  added, 
"I  am  not  entirely  unselfish  in  this.  I  foresee 
that  the  Confederacy  can't  last  very  long;  cer 
tainly  not  a  year.  I  give  it  till  next  September; 
and,  frankly,  when  it  goes  to  smash,  I  want  to 
stand  well  with  you  officers. "  At  my  suggestion 
he  gave  a  few  other  prisoners  food  and  money. 

In  a  few  days  I  was  again  called  to  headquarters 
to  meet  a  Mr.  Jordan,  who,  through  Ficklin's 
efforts,  had  been  invited  to  meet  me.  His  son, 
Henry  T.  Jordan,  Adjutant  of  the  55th  North 
Carolina  Regiment,  was  at  that  time  a  prisoner 
at  Johnson's  Island,  Ohio.  Mr.  Jordan  agreed  to 
make  out  a  list  of  articles  which  he  wished  my 
relatives  to  send  to  his  son.  In  a  day  or  two  he 


In  Confederate  Prisons  127 

did  so.     I  likewise  made  out  a  statement  of  my 
immediate  wants,  as  follows : 

Wood  for  cooking ; 
Cup,  plate,  knife,  fork,  spoon; 
Turnips,  salt,  pepper,  rice,  vinegar; 
Pickled  cucumbers,  dried  apple,  molasses; 
Or  any  other  substantial  food. 

I  asked  Jordan  to  send  me  those  things  at  once. 
He  answered  after  some  delay  that  he  would  do  so 
immediately  on  receiving  an  acknowledgment 
from  his  son  that  my  friends  had  furnished  him 
what  he  wanted;  and  he  would  await  such  a  mes 
sage  !  As  my  relatives  were  in  Massachusetts  and 
Connecticut,  it  would  take  considerable  time  for 
them  to  negotiate  with  the  prison  commandant 
and  other  parties  in  Ohio  and  have  the  stipu 
lations  distinctly  understood  and  carried  into 
effect  there.  Besides,  there  were  likely  to  be 
provoking  delays  in  communicating  by  mail  be 
tween  the  north  and  the  south,  and  it  might  be  a 
month  or  six  weeks  before  he  got  assurances  from 
his  son;  by  which  time  I  should  probably  be  in  a 
better  world  than  Danville,  and  in  no  need  of 
wood,  food,  or  table-ware.  I  wrote  him  to  that 
effect,  and  requested  him  to  make  haste,  but 
received  no  reply. 

My  friend  Mr.  Ficklin  came  to  the  rescue.     As 


128  Lights  and  Shadows 

a  pretext  to  deceive,  if  need  were,  the  prison 
authorities,  and  furnish  to  them  and  others  a 
sufficient  reason  for  bringing  me  supplies,  he 
pretended  that  he  had  a  friend,  a  Confederate 
prisoner  of  war  at  Camp  Douglas  near  Chicago, 
and  that  Colonel  Sprague's  friends  had  been 
exceedingly  kind  to  him,  ministering  most  liber 
ally  to  his  wants!  The  name  of  this  imaginary 
friend  was  J.  H.  Holland,  a  private  soldier  of  the 
30th  Virginia  Cavalry.  Ficklin  forged  a  letter 
purporting  to  come  from  Holland  to  him,  which 
he  showed  to  Colonel  Smith,  in  which  he  spoke 
with  much  gratitude  of  my  friends'  bounty,  and 
besought  Ficklin  to  look  tenderly  after  my  comfort 
in  return!  The  ruse  succeeded.  Ficklin's  gener 
osity  to  me  was  repeated  from  time  to  time,  and 
perhaps  saved  my  life. 

A  year  after  the  close  of  the  war  Ficklin  wrote 
to  me  that  he  wished  to  secure  a  position  in  the 
Treasury  Department  of  the  United  States,  and 
he  thought  it  would  aid  him  if  I  would  certify 
to  what  I  knew  of  his  kindness  to  Union  prisoners. 
I  accordingly  drew  up  a  strong  detailed  statement 
of  his  timely  and  invaluable  charities  to  us  in  our 
distress.  I  accompanied  it  with  vouchers  for  my 
credibility  signed  by  Hon.  N.  D.  Sperry,  General 
Wm.  H.  Russell,  and  President  Theodore  D. 


In  Confederate  Prisons  129 

Woolsey,  all  of  New  Haven,  and  Governor  Wm.  A. 
Buckingham  of  Norwich,  Conn.  These  documents 
I  forwarded  to  Ficklin.  I  do  not  know  the  result. 
From  Sergeant  Wilson  F.  Smith,  chief  clerk  at 
Colonel  Smith's  headquarters,  a  paroled  prisoner, 
member  of  Co.  F.,  6th  Pa.  Cav.,  the  company 
of  Captain  Furness,  son  or  brother  of  my 
Shakespearian  friend,  Dr.  Horace  Howard  Furness, 
and  from  Mr.  Strickland,  undertaker,  who  furn 
ished  the  coffins  and  buried  the  dead  of  the 
Danville  prisons,  both  of  whom  I  talked  with 
when  I  was  on  parole  in  February,  '65,  I  obtained 
statistics  mutually  corroborative  of  the  number 
of  deaths  in  the  Danville  prisons.  In  November 
there  were  130;  in  December,  140;  from  January 
1st  to  January  24th,  105.  The  negro  soldiers  suf 
fered  most.  There  were  sixty- four  of  them  living  in 
prison  when  we  reached  Danville,  October  20,  '64. 
Fifty- seven  of  them  were  dead  on  the  I2th  of 
February,  '65,  when  I  saw  and  talked  with  the  seven 
survivors  in  Prison  No.  Six.  From  one  of  the 
officers  (I  think  it  was  Captain  Stuart)  paroled 
like  myself  in  February  to  distribute  supplies 
of  clothing  sent  by  the  United  States  through  the 
lines,  and  who  performed  that  duty  in  Salisbury, 
and  from  soldiers  of  my  own  regiment  there 
imprisoned,  I  learned  that  in  the  hundred  days 


130  Lights  and  Shadows 

ending  February  1st,  out  of  eight  or  ten  thousand 
prisoners,  more  than  thirty  a  day,  more  than 
three  thousand  in  all,  had  died!  Of  Colonel 
Hartshorne's  splendid  "Bucktail  Regiment,"  the 
iQOth  Pa.,  formerly  commanded  by  my  Yale 
classmate  Colonel  O'Neil  who  fell  at  Antietam, 
there  were  330  at  Salisbury,  October  iQth,  the 
day  we  left;  116  of  them  were  dead  before  Feb 
ruary  ist,  one  company  losing  22  out  of  33  men. 

Why  this  fearful  mortality?  Men  do  not  die 
by  scores,  hundreds,  thousands,  without  some 
extraordinary  cause.  It  was  partly  for  want  of 
clothing.  They  were  thinly  clad  when  captured. 

Pursuant  to  agreement  entered  into  early  in 
December,  1864,  between  the  Federal  and  Con 
federate  authorities,  supplies  of  clothing  for 
Union  prisoners  in  Richmond,  Danville,  and 
Salisbury,  were  sent  through  the  lines.  They 
did  not  reach  Danville  till  February.  Colonel 
Carle,  iQist  Pa.  and  myself,  with  another 
officer  (I  think  he  was  Colonel  Gilbert  G.  Prey, 
iO4th  N.  Y.)  were  paroled  to  distribute  coats 
(or  blouses),  trousers,  and  shoes,  among  the 
enlisted  men  in  their  three  prisons.  Then  for  the 
first  time  Union  officers  saw  the  interior  of  those 
jails.  By  permission  of  Colonel  Smith,  Mr. 


In  Confederate  Prisons  131 

Ficklin  accompanied  us  on  one  of  these  visits,  and 
I  saw  him  give  fifty  dollars  in  Confederate  money 
to  one  of  our  suffering  soldiers.  My  part  in  the 
distribution  was  to  sign  as  witness  opposite  the 
name  of  each  one  receiving.  Those  rolls  should  be 
in  the  archives  at  Washington. 

On  the  1 2th  of  February  we  issued  shoes  and 
clothing  in  the  jail  known  as  Prison  No.  Six. 
It  contained  that  day  308  of  our  men.  There 
were  the  seven  surviving  colored  soldiers,  and  the 
one  wearing  our  prison  commander 's  coat.  We 
requested  them  all  to  form  line,  and  each  as  his 
name  was  called  to  come  forward  and  receive 
what  he  most  needed.  Some  of  them  were  so 
feeble  that  they  had  to  be  assisted  in  coming  down 
from  the  upper  floor,  almost  carried  in  the  arms 
of  stronger  comrades.  Many  were  unable  to 
remain  standing  long,  and  sank  helpless  on  the 
floor.  Nearly  all  were  half- clad,  or  wearing  only 
the  thinnest  of  garments.  Some  were  white 
with  vermin.  Several  were  so  far  gone  that  they 
had  forgotten  their  company  or  regiment.  Every 
one  seemed  emaciated.  Many  kept  asking  me 
why  our  government  did  not  exchange  prisoners; 
for  they  were  told  every  day  the  truth  that  the 
Confederate  government  desired  it.  There  was 
a  stove,  but  no  fuel.  The  big  rooms  were  not 


132  Lights  and  Shadows 

heated.  The  cold  was  severe.  About  a  third  of 
them  had  apparently  given  up  all  hope  of  keeping 
their  limbs  and  bodies  warm ;  but  they  kept  their 
heads,  necks,  shoulders,  and  chests,  carefully 
wrapped.  The  dismal  coughing  at  times  drowned 
all  other  sounds,  and  made  it  difficult  to  proceed 
with  our  work  of  distribution.  There  were  two 
little  fires  of  chips  and  splinters  on  bricks,  one  of 
them  near  the  middle,  the  other  near  the  far  end. 
In  contact  with  these  were  tin  or  earthen  cups  con 
taining  what  passed  for  food  or  drink.  There  was 
no  outlet  for  smoke.  It  blackened  the  hands  and 
faces  of  those  nearest,  and  irritated  the  lungs  of  all. 
This  prison  was  the  worst.  It  was  colder  than 
the  others.  But  all  were  uncomfortably  cold. 
All  were  filled  with  smoke  and  lice.  From  each 
there  went  every  day  to  the  hospital  a  wagon- 
load  of  half-starved  and  broken-hearted  soldiers 
who  would  never  return.  I  visited  the  hospital 
to  deliver  to  two  of  the  patients  letters  which 
Colonel  Smith  had  handed  to  me  for  them.  They 
were  both  dead.  I  looked  down  the  long  list. 
The  word  "Died,"  with  the  date,  was  opposite 
most  of  the  names.  As  I  left  the  hospital  I 
involuntarily  glanced  up  at  the  lintel,  half  expect 
ing  to  see  inscribed  there  as  over  the  gate  to 
Dante's  Hell, 


In  Confederate  Prisons  133 

ALL  HOPE  ABANDON,  YE  WHO  ENTER  HERE! 

At  the  rate  our  enlisted  men  were  dying  at  Dan 
ville  and  Salisbury  during  the  winter  of  1864-65, 
all  would  have  passed  away  in  a  few  months,  cer 
tainly  in  less  than  a  year;  AND  THEY  KNEW  IT. 

Is  it  any  wonder  that  some  of  them,  believing 
our  government  had  abandoned  them  to  starva 
tion  rather  than  again  risk  its  popularity  by 
resorting  to  conscription  for  the  enrollment  of 
recruits  and  by  possibly  stirring  up  draft  riots 
such  as  had  cost  more  than  a  thousand  lives  in  the 
city  of  New  York  in  July,  1863,  accepted  at  last 
the  terms  which  the  Confederates  constantly  held 
out  to  them,  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the 
Confederacy,  and  enlisted  in  the  rebel  army?  I  was 
credibly  informed  that  more  than  forty  did  it  in 
Prison  No.  Four  at  Danville,  and  more  than  eleven 
hundred  at  Salisbury.  Confederate  recruiting  of 
ficers  and  sergeants  were  busy  in  those  prisons, 
offering  them  the  choice  between  death  and  life. 
No  doubt  multitudes  so  enlisted  under  the  Con 
federate  flag  with  full  determination  to  desert  to 
our  lines  at  the  first  convenient  opportunity. 
Such  was  the  case  with  private  J.  J.  Lloyd,  Co. 
A,  of  my  battalion,  who  rejoined  us  in  North 
Carolina.  The  great  majority  chose  to  die. 


134  Lights  and  Shadows 

The  last  communication  that  I  received  from 
enlisted  men  of  my  battalion,  fellow  prisoners  with 
me  at  Salisbury,  whom  I  had  exhorted  not  to 
accept  the  offers  of  the  Confederates,  but  to  be 
true  to  their  country  and  their  flag,  read  thus: 
"  Colonel,  don't  be  discouraged.  Our  boys  all 
say  they'll  starve  to  death  in  prison  sooner  than 
take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Confederacy." 
And  true  to  this  resolve  did  indeed  starve  or  freeze 
to  death  Sergeant  Welch,  Sergeant  Twichell, 
Privates  Vogel,  Plaum,  Barnes,  Geise,  Andrews, 
Bishop,  Weldon,  who  had  stood  by  me  in  many  a 
battle,  and  who  died  at  last  for  the  cause  they 
loved. 

It  is  comparatively  easy  to  face  death  in  battle. 
No  great  courage  or  merit  in  that.  The  soldier 
is  swept  along  with  the  mass.  Often  he  cannot 
shirk  if  he  would.  The  chances  usually  are  that 
he  will  come  out  alive.  He  may  be  inspired  with 
heroism, 

And  the  stern  joy  which  warriors  feel 
In  foeman  worthy  of  their  steel. 

There  is  a  consciousness  of  irresistible  strength 
as  he  beholds  the  gleaming  lines,  the  dense  columns, 
the  smoking  batteries,  the  dancing  flags,  the 
cavalry  with  flying  feet. 


In  Confederate  Prisons  135 

'Twere  worth  ten  years  of  peaceful  life, 
One  glance  at  their  array. 


Or  nobler,  he  feels  that  he  represents  a  nation  or 
a  grand  cause,  and  that  upon  his  arm  depends 
victory.  In  his  enthusiasm  he  even  fancies  him 
self  a  vicegerent  of  the  Almighty,  commissioned 
to  fight  in  His  cause,  to  work  His  will,  to  save  His 
earth  from  becoming  a  hell.  "From  the  heights 
of  yonder  pyramids, "  said  Napoleon  to  the  French 
battling  against  the  Mamelukes,  "forty  centuries 
are  looking  down  upon  you."  Our  soldier  in 
battle  imagined  the  world  looking  on,  that  for 
him  there  was  fame  undying;  should  he  fall 
wounded,  his  comrades  would  gently  care  for 
him;  if  slain,  his  country's  flag  would  be  his 
shroud. 

By  no  such  considerations  were  our  imprisoned 
comrades  cheered.  Not  in  the  glorious  rush  and 
shock  of  battle;  not  in  hope  of  victory  or  fadeless 
laurels;  no  angel  charities,  or  parting  kiss,  or 
sympathetic  voice  bidding  the  soul  look  heaven 
ward  while  the  eye  was  growing  dim;  no  dear 
star-spangled  banner  for  a  winding  sheet.  But 
wrapped  in  rags;  unseen,  unnoticed,  dying  by 
inches,  in  the  cold,  in  the  darkness,  often  in 
rain  or  sleet,  houseless,  homeless,  friendless,  on  the 


136  Lights  and  Shadows 

hard  floor  or  the  bare  ground,  starving,  freezing, 
broken-hearted. 


O  the  long  and  dreary  winter! 
O  the  cold  and  cruel  winter! 


It  swept  them  away  at  Salisbury  by  tens,  twenties, 
even  fifties  in  a  single  night. 

These  men  preferred  death  to  dishonor.  When 
we  are  told  that  our  people  are  not  patriotic,  or 
sigh  of  America  as  Burke  did  of  France  a  century 
and  a  quarter  ago,  that  the  age  of  chivalry  is  gone, 
we  may  point  to  this  great  martyrdom,  the  bright 
est  painting  on  the  darkest  background  in  all  our 
history — thousands  choosing  to  die  for  the 
country  which  seemed  to  disown  them! 

My  diary  records,  and  I  believe  it  correct,  that 
on  the  iyth  of  February,  there  were  ten  deaths 
in  the  Danville  prisons.  A  little  before  midnight 
of  that  day  the  Danville  prisoners  were  loaded 
into  box  cars,  and  the  train  was  started  for  Rich 
mond.  Three,  it  was  reported,  died  in  the  cars 
that  night,  and  one  next  morning  in  the  street  on 
the  way  to  Libby. 

During  the  next  three  days  I  obtained  the 
autographs  of  two  hundred  and  fifteen  of  my 
fellow  officers  there.  The  little  book  is  precious. 


In  Confederate  Prisons  137 

A  few  still  survive;  but  the  great  majority  have 
joined  the  faithful  whom  they  commanded. 

On  Fame's  eternal  camping  ground 

Their  silent  tents  are  spread, 
And  Glory  guards  with  solemn  round 

The  bivouac  of  the  dead! 

On  the  twenty-second  we  were  taken  for  ex 
change  down  the  James.  As  we  passed  through 
the  lines  into  what  we  were  accustomed  fondly  to 
call  "God's  Country, "  salvos  of  artillery  and  signs 
of  universal  rejoicing  greeted  us.  Our  reception 
made  us  imagine  for  an  hour  that  our  arrival 
perceptibly  heightened  the  general  joy  of  the 
Washington  anniversary.  But  many  of  us  could 
not  help  wishing  we  were  asleep  with  the  thou 
sands  who  were  filling  nameless  graves  at  Danville 
and  Salisbury. 


CHAPTER  X 

Results  and  Reflections— The  Right  and  the  Wrong  of  it  All. 

A  FEW  days  of  waiting  in  the  buildings  of  the 
Naval  Academy  at  Annapolis  while  exchange 
papers  were  preparing  gave  us  opportunity  for  a 
much-needed  transformation.  Our  old  clothing, 
encrusted  with  dirt  and  infested  with  vermin, 
in  many  cases  had  to  be  destroyed.  One  of  our 
number  especially  unkempt,  Captain  T.,  who  gave 
up  for  an  hour  or  two  his  beloved  trousers,  found 
to  his  surprise  and  horror  when  he  called  for  their 
return  that  they  had  been  burned  with  four  hun 
dred  dollars  in  greenbacks  sewed  up  in  the  lining! 
We  smiled  at  his  irrepressible  grief;  it  was  poetic 
justice.  He  had  carefully  concealed  the  fact  of 
his  being  flush,  pretending  all  along  to  be  like 
the  rest  in  forma  pauperis,  and  contriving,  it  was 
said,  to  transfer  in  crooked  ways  our  pennies  into 
his  pockets! 

Fumigated,  parboiled,  scrubbed,  barbered,  de 
cently  clothed,  "the  deformed  transformed"  were 

138 


In  Confederate  Prisons  139 

once  more  presentable  in  civilized  society.  Then 
followed  a  brief  leave  of  absence  if  desired,  to  visit 
relatives.  To  them  it  seemed  a  veritable  resur 
rection  after  our  months  of  living  burial;  yet  the 
joy  of  reunion  was  sometimes  tinged  with  sorrow. 
I  learned  that  in  the  very  week  in  which  the  tidings 
of  my  capture  came  our  home  circle  had  been 
sadly  broken  by  the  death  of  a  beloved  sister,  and 
just  then  the  telegraph  told  of  the  loss  by  fever 
in  the  army  at  Newbern  of  our  household 
darling, 

Younger  by  fifteen  years  than  myself, 
Brother  at  once  and  son. 


As  previously  stated  we  who  held  commissions 
fared  better  on  the  whole  than  the  non-com 
missioned  officers  and  privates,  though  receiving 
from  the  commissary  rations  exactly  equal  to 
theirs.  Commonly  older  and  therefore  of  larger 
experience  and  superior  intelligence,  a  good 
officer  is  as  a  father  looking  out  for  the  physical 
welfare  of  his  men  as  well  as  himself.  Then  there 
were  some  who,  like  Gardner,  had  been  fortunate 
in  keeping  clothing,  money,  or  other  valuable  at  the 
instant  of  capture  or  in  hiding  it  when  searched  by 
Dick  Turpin  at  Libby.  Several  like  Captain  Cook 


14°  Lights  and  Shadows 

had  obtained  pecuniary  assistance  from  influential 
friends  across  the  lines,  or  in  a  few  instances  had 
been  favored  by  brother  freemasons  or  by  chari 
tably  disposed  visitors  who  gave  us  a  little  food,  a 
few  old  books,  or  even  Confederate  currency. 
Several  sold  to  the  sentinels  watches,  rings,  chains, 
breast-pins,  society  badges,  silver  spurs,  military 
boots,  or  curiously  wrought  specimens  of  Yankee 
ingenuity  carved  with  infinite  pains.  The  "John 
nies"  appeared  to  hanker  for  any  article  not  pro 
duced  in  the  Confederacy.  An  officer  of  the 
guard  offered  Putnam  three  hundred  dollars  for 
a  nearly  worn-out  tooth-brush ! 

The  educational  standard  among  our  officers 
was  quite  respectable.  I  think  that  West  Point 
had  a  representative  among  us,  as  well  as  Bowdoin 
and  several  other  colleges.  Certainly  we  had 
ex-students  from  at  least  five  universities,  Brown, 
Yale,  Harvard,  the  Sorbonne,  and  Gottingen. 

To  afford  diversion  and  as  an  antidote  to  depres 
sion,  as  well  as  for  intellectual  improvement,  some 
of  us  studied  mathematics I  or  Shakespeare.  Three 
or  four  classes  were  formed  in  modern  languages. 


1 1  still  possess  the  copy  of  Da  vies 's  Legendre  which  I  bought  on 
the  8th  of  November  for  twenty  Confederate  dollars,  and  of 
which  I  memorized  three  books  in  prison.  As  to  the  Shakespeare, 
see  ante,  p.  85. 


In  Confederate  Prisons  141 

We  had  card-playing  with  packs  soiled  and  worn; 
checkers  and  chess  on  extemporized  boards  with 
rudely  whittled  "pieces";  occasional  discussions 
historical,  literary,  political,  or  religious;  many 
of  us  quite  regular  physical  exercises  in  brisk 
walks  on  the  empty  lowest  floor;  story-telling; 
at  times,  though  not  often,  the  reading  aloud  of 
a  Confederate  newspaper,  to  a  group  of  fifty  or 
more  listeners;  at  evening,  sweet  singing,  riddles, 
jests,  or  loud-voiced  sarcastic  conundrums  and 
vSatirical  responses.  Many  found  interest  and 
pleasure  in  carving  with  the  utmost  nicety  wood 
or  bone.  * 

Something  like  military  discipline  prevailed 
among  the  two  hundred  in  the  upper  room  where 
the  superior  rank  of  General  Hayes  was  often 
recognized.  Among  a  hundred  and  fifty  or  more 
in  the  lower  room,  where  for  a  month  or  two  I 
was  the  senior  but  was  unwilling  to  assume  pre 
cedence,  I  secured  with  the  aid  of  Major  Byron, 
Captain  Howe,  and  a  few  others  a  sort  of  civil 
government  with  semi-military  features. 

These  measures  and  the  favoring  circumstances 


1  I  retain  with  pride  the  wooden  spoon  which  did  me  good  ser 
vice  when  I  was  in  limbo.  It  cost  me  over  two  weeks'  labor  in 
shaping  it  with  half  a  knife-blade  and  pieces  of  broken  glass. 
For  the  little  block  of  wood  I  paid  the  sentry  one  "rebel  dollar!" 


I42  Lights  and  Shadows 

that  have  been  mentioned  tended  of  course  to 
the  preservation  of  health  among  the  officers. 
There  was  severe  suffering  from  hunger,  cold, 
rheumatism,  and  scurvy,  from  all  of  which  I  was 
for  weeks  a  victim  and  at  one  time  seemed  doomed 
to  perish.  I  recall,  however,  the  names  of  but  two 
officers  (there  were  said  to  be  four)  who  died  at 
Danville.  Some  of  us,  though  enfeebled,  were 
soon  able  to  rejoin  our  commands;  as  Putnam 
his  at  Newbern  in  April,  Gardner  and  I  ours  at 
Morehead  City  the  day  after  Lee's  surrender  at 
Appomattox. 

Of  the  effect  in  after-life  of  these  strange  experi 
ences  it  is  safe  to  say  that  to  some  extent  they  were 
a  spur  to  intellectual  effort.  At  least  they  should 
have  made  all  sadder  and  wiser;  and  they  certainly 
were  in  some  cases  an  equipment  for  descriptive 
authorship.  Major  (Adner  A.)  Small  wrote  a  valu 
able  account  of  prison  life.  Dr.  Burrage's  narratives 
of  his  capture  and  its  results  are  entertaining 
and  instructive.  Major  Putnam's  A  Prisoner  of 
War  in  Virginia  (reprinted  in  his  Memories  of  My 
Youth]  is  an  important  contribution  to  our  military 
history. z  Lieutenant  Estabrooks's  Adrift  in  Dixie 

1  Many  years  after  the  war  he  rendered  financial  aid  to  fellow 
prisoners,  his  chum,  artist  Vander  Weyde,  and  General  Hayes. 
Author  of  several  valuable  works,  he  is  now  head  of  the  publishing 
house  of  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons. 


In  Confederate  Prisons  143 

is  charmingly  told.1  ''Dutch  Clark"  (Adjutant 
James  A.  Clark,  ijth  Pa.  Cav.),  one  of  the  four 
who  nightly  tried  to  sleep  under  my  blanket,  started 
and  edited  with  ability  at  Scranton  The  Public 
Code,  for  which  I  was  glad  to  furnish  literary 
material.  He  afterwards  became  prominent  in 
theosophic  circles.  Others  distinguished  them 
selves.  Captain  (Frank  H.)  Mason,  in  prison  our 
best  chess  player,  was  long  Consul-General  at 
Paris.  Cook  studied  five  or  six  years  in  Germany, 
France,  and  Italy,  then  was  for  eight  or  ten  years 
assistant  professor  in  German  at  Harvard,  and 
afterwards  for  two  years,  until  his  untimely  death, 
professor  in  the  same  department  at  the  In 
stitute  of  Technology  in  Boston.  In  addressing  a 
Sunday-school  in  Brooklyn,  1871,  I  unexpectedly 
lighted  upon  Captain  Tiemann  doing  good  work 
as  a  teacher.  Captain  Gardner  continued  for 
many  months  a  model  military  officer  in  Georgia. 2 

1  It  was  a  special  pleasure  after  the  lapse  of  fifty  years  to  meet 
Estabrooks  at  the   Massachusetts  Commandery  of   the   Loyal 
Legion,  where,  without  knowing  of  his  presence,  I  had  just  made 
honorable  mention  of  him  in  an  address  on  prison  life. 

2  In  my  own  case  the  prison  experience  was  peculiar:  it  changed 
the  course  of  my  whole  subsequent  life.     I  had  studied  law,  been 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  two  states,  and  "practiced"  with  fair  suc 
cess,  "though,"  as  a  friend  was  accustomed  to  remark,  "not 
enough  to  do  much  harm!"     Many  times  one  of  the  best  men  I 
ever  knew,  my  father,  had  said  to  me  at  parting,  "  Do  all  the  good 
you  can."     Much  meditating  while  in  the  army  and  especially 


144  Lights  and  Shadows 

I  remained  in  the  service  a  full  year,  often  on  courts- 
martial,  military  commissions,  and  "reconstruc 
tion"  duty. 

As  already  described,  the  condition  of  the 
enlisted  men  strongly  contrasted  with  ours.  The 
Report  of  the  Confederate  Inspector  of  Prisons 
now  on  file  in  the  War  Records  of  our  government, 
though  the  reports  of  his  subordinate  officers  are 
significantly  missing,  covers  the  few  months  next 
preceding  January,  1865.  It  sharply  censures 
the  immediate  prison  authorities,  stating,  as 
the  result  of  the  privations,  that  the  deaths  at 

while  in  prison,  I  finally  resolved  to  pursue  an  educational  career. 
Of  course  I  felt  sadly  the  loss  of  years  of  study  that  might  have 
better  equipped  me;  but  it  seemed  a  duty.  I  had  had  some 
experience  which,  I  thought,  proved  me  not  wholly  unquali 
fied.  While  a  student  in  college  and  while  reading  law  I  had 
partly  supported  myself  by  giving  instruction  to  private  pupils 
and  in  the  schools  of  General  Russell  and  Mayor  Skinner.  After 
wards,  before  the  war,  I  had  taught  Greek  in  the  Worcester 
(Mass.)  Academy;  and  English  literature,  Greek,  and  Latin  for 
more  than  three  years  as  principal  of  the  Worcester  public 
high  school.  I  knew  the  vocation  would  be  congenial.  So  I 
became  principal  of  a  state  normal  school,  of  two  high  schools, 
of  a  large  academy;  house  chairman  of  a  (Conn.)  legislative 
committee  securing  the  enactment  of  three  school  measures  of 
importance;  later,  president  of  a  college,  professor  in  a  theo 
logical  seminary  and  in  Cornell  University;  founder  and  for 
three  years  first  president  of  the  earliest  and  long  the  largest 
of  the  world's  general  summer  schools  (which  now  in  the  United 
States  number  nearly  700);  lecturer  in  many  Chautauqua  as 
semblies,  colleges,  vacation  schools,  and  university  extension 


In  Confederate  Prisons  145 

Danville  were  at  the  rate  of  about  five  per  day! 
I  think  they  were  more  numerous  in  January  and 
February.  None  of  my  battalion  were  there,  but 
at  Salisbury  three- sevenths  of  them  died  in  less 
than  three  months! 

It  is  hard  to  refrain  from  the  expression  of 
passionate  indignation  at  the  treatment  accorded 
to  our  non-commissioned  officers  and  privates 
in  those  southern  hells.  For  years  we  were 
accustomed  to  ask,  "In  what  military  prison  of 
the  north,  in  what  common  jail  of  Europe,  in 
what  dungeon  of  the  civilized  or  savage  world, 
have  captives  taken  in  war — nay,  condemned 
criminals — been  systematically  exposed  to  a  linger- 

centres;  President  of  the  State  University  of  North  Dakota; 
editor,  with  biographic  sketches  and  copious  notes,  of  many 
masterpieces  as  text-books  in  higher  English  literature;  author 
of  a  history  of  my  regiment;  also  of  a  treatise  on  Voice  and 
Gesture,  of  many  monographs  and  magazine  articles  mostly 
educational;  associate  founder  and  first  president  of  The 
Watch  and  Ward  Society;  one  of  the  directors  and  executive 
committee  of  the  American  Peace  Society;  director  of  the  Massa 
chusetts  Peace  Society;  president  of  The  American  Institute  of 
Instruction;  translator,  annotator,  and  essayist  of  The  Book  of 
Job;  etc. 

It  may  be  proper  to  add  that  among  those  indebted  in  some 
degree  to  my  instruction  or  training  were  several  who  captured 
Yale's  highest  prize  for  rhetorical  excellence  (the  hundred  dollar 
gold  medal  of  which  I  was  the  first  recipient) :  one  college  presi 
dent;  six  college  professors;  three  university  presidents;  two 
governors  of  states;  two  United  States  Senators;  and  many  others 
eminent  as  clergymen,  authors,  judges,  editors,  and  business 
men. 

10 


146  Lights  and  Shadows 

ing  death  by  cold  and  hunger?  The  foulest  felon 
— his  soul  black  with  sacrilege,  his  hands  reeking 
with  parricide — has  enough  of  food,  of  clothing,  of 
shelter;  a  chair  to  sit  in,  a  fire  to  warm  him,  a 
blanket  to  hide  his  nakedness,  a  bed  of  straw  to 
die  on!" 

But  listen  a  moment  to  the  other  side.  Alex 
ander  H.  Stephens,  Vice-President  of  the  Confed 
eracy,  afterwards  for  eight  years  a  representative 
in  our  Congress,  a  man  of  unquestioned  integrity, 
shows  in  his  War  between  the  States  (pub.  1868- 
70)  by  quotation  from  the  Report  of  our  then 
Secretary  of  War  (July  19,  1866)  that  only  22,576 
Federal  prisoners  died  in  Confederate  hands 
during  the  war,  whilst  26,436  Confederate  prison 
ers  died  in  Federal  hands.  He  shows  also  from 
the  United  States  Surgeon-General  Joseph  K. 
Barnes's  Report  that  the  number  of  Federal 
prisoners  in  southern  prisons  was  about  270,000, 
but  the  number  of  Confederate  prisoners  in  north 
ern  prisons  was  about  220,000;  so  that  the  per 
centage  of  deaths  in  southern  prisons  was  under 
nine,  while  the  percentage  of  deaths  in  northern 
prisons  was  over  twelve!1 

1  The  higher  death-rate  (if  that  be  conceded)  of  southern 
soldiers  is  easily  accounted  for.  The  northern  soldiers  had  been 
carefully  selected  by  competent  surgeons.  They  were  physically 


In  Confederate  Prisons  147 

Had  there  been,  from  the  first,  prompt  exchanges 
of  prisoners  between  the  north  and  the  south,  few 
of  these  forty-nine  thousand  lives  would  have 
been  lost.  Who,  then,  blocked  the  exchange  ? 

Stephens  declares  (War  between  the  States,  vol. 
ii): 

"  It  is  now  well  understood  to  have  been  a  part  of  the 
settled  policy  of  the  Washington  authorities  in  con 
ducting  the  war,  not  to  exchange  prisoners.  The 
grounds  upon  which  this  extraordinary  course  was 
adopted  were,  that  it  was  humanity  to  the  northern 
men  in  the  field  to  let  their  captured  comrades  perish 
in  prison  rather  than  to  let  an  equal  number  of  Con 
federate  soldiers  be  released  on  exchange  to  meet  them 
in  battle." 

To  the  same  effect  our  Secretary  Stanton  in  one 
of  his  letters  in  1864  pointed  out  "that  it  would 
not  be  good  policy  to  send  back  to  be  placed  on  the 
firing  line  70,000  able-bodied  Confederates,  and 
to  receive  in  exchange  men  who,  with  but  few 
exceptions,  were  not  strong  enough  to  hold  their 
muskets." 

perfect,  or  nearly  so.  They  were  in  the  bloom  of  early  manhood 
or  the  strength  of  middle  age — not  an  old  man  among  them,  not  a 
diseased  man  among  them,  not  a  broken-down  constitution 
among  them.  But  multitudes  of  the  southern,  enrolled  by  con 
scription,  were  physically  unfit.  Many  were  much  too  old  or  too 
young.  Said  our  General  Grant,  "To  fill  their  ranks,  they  have 
robbed  the  cradle  and  the  grave!" 


148  Lights  and  Shadows 

The  responsibility,  then,  for  this  refusal  and  the 
consequent  enormous  sacrifice  of  life  with  all  the 
accompanying  miseries,  must  rest  in  part  upon 
the  Government  of  the  United  States. ' 

Blame  not  the  tender-hearted  Lincoln  for  this. 

Did  he  not  judge  wisely?  Was  it  not  best  for 
the  nation  that  we  prisoners  should  starve  and 
freeze? 

The  pivotal  question  for  him  and  Grant  and 
Stan  ton  was,  "Shall  we  exchange  and  thereby 
enable  the  South  to  reinforce  their  armies  with 
fifty  to  a  hundred  thousand  trained  soldiers? 

"If  yes,  then  we  must  draft  many  more  than 
that;  for  they  being  on  the  defensive  we  must 
outnumber  them  in  battle.  If  no,  then  we  must 
either  stop  their  cruelties  by  equally  cruel  retali 
ation,  as  Washington  hung  Andre  for  the  execution 
of  Hale,  or  we  must,  more  cruelly  still,  leave 
myriads  of  our  soldiers  to  sink  into  imbecility  and 
death." 

The  North  had  not  the  excuse  of  destitution 


1  The  exchange  is  said  to  have  been  stopped  in  1 862-63  by  the 
refusal  of  the  Confederates  to  give  up  captured  negro  soldiers  in 
return  for  southern  captives  in  the  North,  the  United  States 
properly  insisting  upon  perfect  equality  in  the  treatment  of 
black  and  white.  But  early  in  1864,  if  not  previously,  the 
Confederates  yielded  the  point  and  were  anxious  to  surrender 
man  for  man. 


In  Confederate  Prisons  149 

which  the  South  had,  and  it  could  not  bring  itself 
to  make  reprisals  in  kind.  To  draft  again,  as 
evinced  in  the  terrible  riots  of  July,  1863,  would 
have  been  extremely  unpopular  and  perhaps 
overthrown  the  administration  and  defeated  the 
policy  of  the  government.  To  exchange  would 
pretty  surely  have  prolonged  the  war,  and  might 
have  resulted  in  permanent  disunion. 

As  to  the  right  or  wrong  of  the  refusal  to  ex 
change,  it  is  hardly  relevant  to  insist  that  the 
triumph  of  the  South  would  have  perpetuated 
slavery.  Lincoln's  Proclamation,  January  i,  1863, 
did  not  touch  slavery  in  the  Border  States.  And 
from  the  southern  nation,  denuded  of  slaves  by 
their  escape  to  the  North  and  confronted  by  the 
growing  anti-slavery  sentiment  of  the  civilized 
world,  the  " peculiar  institution"  would  soon 
have  died  out. 

Need  we  attempt,  as  is  often  done,  to  justify 
our  government's  attitude  in  this  matter  by 
affirming  that  the  nation  was  in  a  life-and-death 
struggle  for  its  very  existence?  Did  that  exist 
ence  depend  upon  its  territorial  limits?  Would  it 
have  gone  to  pieces  if  the  victorious  North  had 
relinquished  its  hold  on  the  defeated  South?  Had 
a  boundary  line  been  drawn  half-way  across  the 
continent,  separating  the  twenty-three  loyal 


150  Lights  and  Shadows 

States  from  the  eleven  seceding,  the  twenty-two 
millions  of  the  North  from  the  nine  or  ten  millions 
of  the  South,  would  it  not  have  remained  a  mighty 
nation  with  no  cause  for  further  disunion,  and  able 
as  the  war  had  shown  to  place  in  the  field  more 
than  two  million  fighting  men? 

Is  it  not  equally  unnecessary  to  urge,  as  if  it 
were  a  valid  excuse  for  our  government's  refusal 
to  exchange,  that  between  the  two  nations  there 
would  have  been  frequent  if  not  perpetual  hostili 
ties?  Why  so,  any  more  than  between  the  United 
States  and  Canada,  where  for  fifty  (it  is  now  a 
hundred)  years,  along  a  boundary  line  of  thirty- 
eight  hundred  miles,  there  had  been  unbroken 
peace  and  no  fort  nor  warship? 

Let  us  not  raise  the  question  whether  Lincoln 
made  a  colossal  blunder  when  he  renounced  his 
favorite  doctrine  so  emphatically  set  forth  in  his 
Congressional  speech  (page  47).  The  die  was  cast 
when  Sumter  was  fired  on.  The  question  which 
confronted  him  in  1863-64 — What  to  do  with  the 
perishing  Union  prisoners? — was  simply  one  of 
military  necessity. 

According  to  the  ethics  of  war  was  he  not  fully 
justified  in  sacrificing  us  rather  than  imperiling 
the  great  cause  which  he  had  at  heart? 

Are  we,  then,  to  blame  President  Davis,  or  the 


In  Confederate  Prisons  151 

Confederate  Commissioner  Robert  Ould,  or 
Gen.  John  H.  Winder,  Superintendent  of  Mil 
itary  Prisons,  for  allowing  the  Federal  prisoners 
to  starve  and  freeze  and  die  by  thousands?  Must 
we  not  admit  the  truth  of  their  contention  that 
their  soldiers  needed  the  food,  clothing,  and  medi 
cal  care  for  want  of  which  their  prisoners  were 
suffering?  And  if  the  shocking  conditions  at  An 
derson  ville,  Salisbury,  Danville,  and  other  prisons 
could  easily  have  been  avoided,  or  even  if  they 
were  made  more  distressing  by  the  deliberate  in 
humanity  of  those  in  immediate  charge,  ought 
not  such  facts  to  have  intensified  a  desire  on 
the  part  of  both  governments  to  effect  a  speedy 
exchange? 

The  southern  people  were  threatened  with  sub 
jugation,  their  government  with  annihilation. 
In  such  a  critical  situation,  what  measures  are 
allowable? 

We  endeavor  to  look  at  the  matter  from  both 
standpoints. 

This  brings  up  the  whole  question  of  the  right- 
fulness  of  war.  If  it  must  be  waged,  is  success 
the  highest  duty?  If  military  necessity  demands, 
may  any  and  every  law  of  God  and  man  be  dis 
regarded? 

While   we  write    these   concluding    pages,   the 


152  In  Confederate  Prisons 

European  conflict  is  raging,  and  the  voice  of  the 
most  warlike  nation  on  the  globe  is  heard  continu 
ally  affirming  that  war  is  useful  and  highly  honor 
able,  and  that  any  means,  however  frightful,  if  nec 
essary  to  ensure  or  hasten  victory  is  praise- worthy ! 

Then  both  presidents  were  right! 

But  is  not  international  war  murder  on  a  great 
scale?  It  is  glorious  to  die  for  one's  country;  but 
how  about  killing  for  our  country?  killing  inno 
cent  men,  too?  for  the  soldiers  on  either  side 
honestly  believe  they  are  doing  their  duty  in  shoot 
ing  and  stabbing  as  many  as  possible!  "The 
business  of  war,"  said  John  Wesley,  "is  the  busi 
ness  of  devils."  So  it  would  seem ;  but  at  heart  few 
are  enemies,  none  devils. 

It  has  been  a  pleasure  in  this  narrative  to  record 
instances  of  a  very  different  spirit.  Surely,  in 
proportion  to  population  such  were  not  fewer 
in  the  South  than  in  the  North.  Like  Whittier's 
Angels  of  Buena  Vista  they  rescue  us  from  pessim 
ism.  They  are  prophetic  of  a  better  day. 

Not  wholly  lost,  O  Father,  is  this  evil  world  of  ours! 
Upward  through  the  blood  and  ashes  spring  afresh 

the  Eden  flowers: 
From  its  smoking  hell  of  battle,  Love  and  Pity  send 

their  prayer, 
And  still  thy  white-winged  angels  hover  dimly  in 

our  air! 


APPENDIX 

(From  the  original  record.     See  p.  88.) 

PROCEEDINGS    of    a    Court   Martial    convened   at 
Danville  Mil.  Pris.  by  virtue  of  the  following  Order: 
DANVILLE  MIL.  PRISON,  Oct.  29,  1864. 

General  Order 

No.  i. 

Pursuant  to  the  Regulations  adopted  by  the  Union 
Officers  of  the  2d  Floor  Military  Prison,  Danville,  Va., 
Oct.  26,  1864,  a  Court  Martial  is  hereby  appointed  to 
convene  at  10  o'clock  A.M.  on  the  29th  inst.  or  as  soon 
thereafter  as  may  be  practicable,  for  the  Trial  of 
Captain  [I  omit  from  the  record  the  name  of  the 
accused],  iO4th  N.  Y.  Vols.,  and  such  other  officers 
as  may  be  brought  before  it. 

Detail  for  the  Court. 

Lt.  Col.  W.  A.  LEACH,  [Here  follow   the  names 

90th  P.  V.  of  Captains  Bryant, 

Lt.  Col.  THEO.  GREGG,  Black,  Clapp,  Burkart, 

45th  P.  V.  Weiss  (?),  Reilly  (?), 

Major  J.  W.  BYRON,  Moody,  and  the  name 

88th  N.  Y.  V.  of  the  Judge  Advocate, 

Capt.  G.  M.  DICKERMAN,  Lt.  and  Adjt.  James  A. 

26th  Mass.  V.  Clark,    i;th     Pa.    Cav.] 

By  order  of  the  Officers  of  the  2d  Floor, 

JAMES  CARLE, 

Col.  1 90th  Pa.  Vols.,  Senior  Officer. 
i53 


154  Appendix 

DANVILLE  MIL.  PRISON,  VA.,  10  o'clock  A.M.,  3ist, 
Oct.  1864. 

The  Court  met  pursuant  to  the  foregoing  order. 
Present  all  the  members.  The  Court  then  proceeded 
to  the  trial  of  Capt.  [we  again  omit  the  name  of  the 
accused],  iO4th  N.  Y.  Vols. 

The  Judge  Advocate  stated  that  he  had  acquainted 
the  accused  of  the  order  convening  the  Court,  to 
which  he  replied  in  the  words  following,  to  wit :  "What 
is  that  to  do  with  me?  I  recognize  no  authority 
in  this  prison  to  convene  a  court  martial,"  or  words 
to  that  effect. 

The  accused  having  refused  to  appear,  the  members 
of  the  Court  were  duly  sworn  by  the  Judge  Advocate, 
and  the  Judge  Advocate  was  duly  sworn  by  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  Court.  The  accused,  Capt.  [again  we 
omit  the  name],  iO4th  N.  Y.  Vols.,  was  arraigned  on 
the  following  charges  and  specifications: 

Charge — Conduct  unbecoming  an  officer  and  a 
gentleman. 

Specification — In  this:  That  Capt.  [we  again 
omit],  iO4th  N.  Y.  Vols.,  without  provocation,  did  say 
in  the  hearing  of  several  officers  to  Lieut.  Col.  Homer 
B.  Sprague,  I3th  C.  V.,  speaking  in  coarse  and  ungentle- 
manly  manner  the  words  following,  to  wit:  [here 
we  omit  the  language  uttered  as  being  too  vile  and 
filthy  to  print];  that  he  did  several  times  repeat 
the  same  in  a  coarse  and  angry  tone,  and  used  other 
vulgar  and  indecent  expressions  in  an  insulting  tone 
and  manner.  This  at  Danville  Mil.  Prison,  Va., 
in  the  lower  room  thereof  on  the  2Qth  day  of  October, 
1864. 

The  accused  refusing  to  appear,  the  Judge  Advocate 


Appendix  155 

was  directed  by  the  President  to  enter  the  plea  of 
Not  Guilty. 

To  the  Specification,      Not  Guilty. 

To  the  Charge,  Not  Guilty. 

Lieut.  G.  C.  Wilson,  2d  P.  Artillery,  and  Lieut. 
Wm.  Shuler,  loyth  P.  Vols.,  witnesses  for  the  pro 
secution,  stated  that  they  had  cognizance  of  the  facts 
set  forth  in  the  Specification. 

The  proceedings  of  the  Court  having  been  reviewed 
by  the  Judge  Advocate,  he  submitted  the  case  without 
argument.  The  Court  was  then  cleared  for  delibera 
tion,  and  having  maturely  considered  the  evidence 
adduced  find  the  accused 

On  the  Specification,  Guilty;  with  the  exception  of 
the  words  "and  used  other  vulgar  and  indecent 
expressions." 

Of  the  Charge,  Guilty.  And  do  therefore  sentence 
him  to  be  reprimanded  by  the  Senior  Officer. 

The  Court  is  thus  lenient  owing  to  this  being  the 
first  case  of  the  kind  brought  before  it. 

WM.  A.  LEACH,  Lt.  Col.  90th  Regt.  Pa.  Vols.,  Pres.; 
JAS.    A.    CLARK,  Adjt.  i;th    Pa.  Cavalry,  Judge 
Advocate. 

The  Proceedings  and  Findings  in  the  foregoing  case 
are  hereby  respectfully  submitted  to  Brig.-Gen.  Hayes 
for  his  consideration. 

JAMES  CARLE,  Col.  iQist  Pa.  Vols.,  Senior  Officer, 
2d  Floor. 

CONFED.  MIL.  PRISON,  DANVILLE,  VA.,  Nov.  i,  1864. 

The  Proceedings  and  Findings  of  the  Court  Martial 

of  which  Lt.  Col.  W.  A.  Leach,  goth  Pa.  Vols.,  was 


156  Appendix 

President,  having  been  submitted  to  Brig.-Gen. 
Hayes,  the  Senior  Officer  present,  are  approved.  The 
extreme  leniency  of  the  Court  must  be  apparent  to  all, 
and  can  only  be  excused  by  the  novelty  of  the  case 
brought  before  it.  Language  fails  to  convey  censure 
adequate  to  the  gross  vulgarity  and  ungentlemanly 
conduct  of  the  accused.  Captain  [we  omit  the  name] 
seems  to  forget  or  misconceive  his  responsibility  in  his 
present  circumstances.  An  officer  being  a  prisoner 
of  war  is  not  relieved  from  his  responsibility  to  his 
government  nor  from  his  liability  to  the  regulations  of 
the  service  as  far  as  may  be  applied  to  his  dishonor  by 
ungentlemanly  and  unofficer-like  conduct;  and  many 
other  offenses  committed  by  an  officer  when  a  prisoner 
of  war  are  as  punishable  as  if  that  officer  were  serving 
with  his  command.  And  it  is  well  the  officers  in  the 
prison  have  organized  a  Court  for  the  summary  pun 
ishment  of  those  of  their  number,  who,  forgetful  of 
their  position  and  their  honor,  would  bring  shame 
upon  themselves  and  their  associates. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  Capt.  [name  we  omit]'s  con 
duct  in  the  future  will  be  such  as  will  cause  to  be 
forgotten  his  mistakes  of  the  past. 

JOSEPH  HAYES,  Brig.  Gen.  U.  S.  Vols. 


INDEX 


Adams,  Dr.  Nehemiah,  29 
Adams,  Sarah  F.,  quoted,  35 
ambulance,  37,  38 
annihilation  threatened,  23 
apothecary  doctor,  108,  109 
Appendix,  court  record,   153- 

156 

applejack,  39 
Army  of  West  Va.,  4,  5,  6 
artillery,  trained  on  us,  51,  58 
at  in  "Where  is  he  at?"  73,  75 
attempt  to  break  out,  113,  118 
autographs,  officers',  136 


Barnes,   J.   K.,   Surgeon-Gen., 

146 

battle,  pomp  of,  8,  134 
battlefield,  Winchester,  3  + 
beans,  soup  of,  ration,  44,  94, 

IO2 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  quoted, 

30 

Beecher,  married  by,  52 
Berryville,  3 
Berryville  pike,  3,  4,  7 
Birge,  Gen.  H.  W.,  7,  9 
blanket  for  several,  105 
blankets  "confiscated,"  46 
blankets,  not  to  be  shaken,  87 
Blinn,  Col.  C.  D.,  ill,  7 
Blue  Ridge,  I,  35,  36 
Braxton's  Confed.  artillery,  9 
bread,   corn-cob-meal,  44,   93, 

100 
breakfast  at  Staunton,  32,  33 


breakfast  at  Tom's  Brook,  21 
Breckenridge,  Confed.  Gen.,  5 
Brinton,  Col.,  escape  of,  26,  27 
brooms  in  prison,  100,  102 
Brown,  John,  defended,  28 
Brownell,  H.  H.,  quoted,  137 
Browning,   Mrs.,   quoted,    36, 

83,9i 

buckets  for  water,  98,  no,  116 
Buckingham,   Gov.   of  Conn., 

7,  129 

"Bucktail  Regiment,"  64,  130 
burning  $400,  138 
Burrage,    Major    H.    S.,    117, 

1 20,  142 

Bush,  Lieut.  W.  WT.,  93,  96 
"Butler's     dandy     regiment," 

7  (note) 

Byron,  Lord,  quoted,  28 
Byron,  Major  John  W.,  87 
Byrne,  Major  John,  64,  66,  141 


cards,  playing,  102,  106,  141 
Carle,  Col.  James,  64,  66,  80 
carving  in  prison,  49,  83,  101, 

141 

cavalry,  4,  5,  6, 13,  25, 34, 40, 45 
chaplain,  prisoner,  57,  58,  80 
charge,  Gordon's  brilliant,  10, 

12 

Chautauqua,  Mountain  Lake, 

121 

checkers,  92,  102,  141 
Cheever,  Dr.  Geo.  B.,  29 
chess,  92,  102,  141 
choosing  death,  124,  125,  133, 
134,  136,  143,  153 


157 


158 


Index 


Clarke,  Adjt.  James  A.,  22,  96, 

101,  117,  143,  153 
clergymen's  visits,  121,  122 
Clover,  in  it  at  night,  47 
coal,  poor  and  scanty,  79 
coal  dust,  very  fine !  48 
cold,  severe  and  fatal,  79,  132, 

142 
communication,    finger    signs, 

65,  70 

communication,  secret,  43,  70 
Confederate  currency,  27,  32, 

33,  34,  94,  121,  140 
Cook,  Capt.  William,  58,  85, 

96,  103,  105,  143 
cooking,  how  and  where,  21,  95 
Constitution,  U.  S.,  29,  39,  47 
Corcoran,  Gen.  Michael,  53 
corn-cob-meal    bread,    44,    93, 

loo,  107 

corn-cob-meal  soup,  94,  102 
court  martial  in  prison,  88 ;  and 

Appendix,  153 

Crew,  John,  a  kind  enemy,  28 
Crook,  Gen.  George,  4 


daily    routine,    Danville,    97- 

105,  140,  141 

Dame,  Rev.,  preaches  to  us,  121 
Dan  river,  79,  98 
Danville,   arrival    at,    47,  48; 

again,  77 
Danville  death  record,  129, 132, 

142,  144 

Danville  prisons,  98,  129 
Davies's  Legendre,  140  (note) 
Davis,  Jefferson,  150 
Davis,  Lieut.,  death  of,  57,  58, 

68 

dead  lines.,  Salisbury,  54 
deaf-and-dumb    alphabet,    65, 

70 
deaths  at  Salisbury,   55,    130, 

134,  136,  145 
deaths     of     Confederates     in 

northern  prisons,  146 
deaths  at  Danville,   129,   132, 

136,  145 


Declaration  of   Independence, 

47 

defile,  Berryville,  3,  4,  7 
devastation  by  Sheridan,  2,  3 
diary  kept,  22,  28,  44 
Dickerman,  Capt.  G.  M.,  32 
discussion  with  Lieut.  Howard, 

28,  29,  30 
discussions  in  prison,  47,  90,  91, 

102,   IIO,   141 

distribution  of  rations,  54,  100 
Dolan,  pitied   by  Confederate 

ladies,  37 

Duffid,  Gen.  O.  N.,  113-117 
Dwight,  Gen.  William,  12,  13 


i: 


Early,  Gen.  Jubal  A.,  5,  9,  14, 

17 

Edenburg  village,  26 
education  in  prison,  69,  70,  91, 

92,  140 
Eighth  Corps,  W.  Va.  Army, 

4,  5,  6 

Election  votes  in  prison,  90 
Emerson,  Rev., prison  chaplain, 

58,  80 

enlist  or  die,  choice  to,  133,  134 
Epaminondas,    strategy    at 

Leuctra,  10 

"escape  on  the  brain,"  67 
escapes  attempted,  26,  50,  no 
Estabrooks,  Lieut.  H.  L.,  72, 

74,  142,  143  (note) 
exchange  of  prisoners,  83,  89, 

102,   131 

exchange  blocked,  89,  90,  106, 
107,  124,  131,  I47-I5I 


Ficklin,    J.    F.,    his   kindness, 

125-129,131 
Fisher,  First  Sea  Lord,  quoted, 

Fisher's  Hill,  battle,  25 
Fisher's  Hill  reached,  20 
"flag-of-truce  fever,"  106,  107, 
1 08 


Index 


159 


fleas,  wicked,  27 

flour  ration,  how  cooked,  21 

Fontleroy,  Dr.,  his  hospitality, 

32,33 

freemasonry,  very  useful,  38, 

40,  42,  46 

French,  oral  lessons  in,  69,  70 
Fry,  Major  W.  H.,  85 
fugitive  slave  law,  29,  30 
fun,  critical  and  sarcastic,  104, 

105 

fun,  sanitary,  79,  80 
furnace  way  of  escape,  no 
Furness,  Horace  Howard,  129 


Gardner,  Adjt.  W.  C.,  69,  70, 
71,   74,   85,    107,    108,    109, 

142,  143 
Gee,  Confed.  Major,  52,  53,  56, 

German,  oral  lessons  in,  92 
Ghost  in  Hamlet,  85,  86 
"God's  Country,"  137 
God's  fugitive  slave  law,  29 
"going  through"  prisoners,  22 
Gordon,  Confed.  Gen.  J.  B.,  5, 

10,  17 
Gordon's  brilliant  charge,   10, 

13 

gorge  of  Berryville  pike,  3,  4,  10 
gorilla  or  guerilla,  which?  39, 

40 

grain  cars  at  Danville,  48 
Grant's  merciless  orders,  2 
Greek    Testament,    kept,    42; 

stolen,  80 

greenbacks  burned,  138 
greenbacks,  relative  value  of, 

23,  24,  41,  140 
Greensboro,  N.  Carolina,  48 
Gregg,    Lieut.-Col.    Theodore, 

64,  85 

Grover,  Gen.  Cuvier,  5,  6,  8,  12 
guerilla,  "  I'm  a  guerilla,"  59 
guerilla,     Morgan's,     a     kind 

gentleman,  34 
gun  cotton,  cushion  suspected, 

45,  46 


hake,  issued  in  rations,  94 
Hall,  Rev.  Charles  K.,  kind, 

122 

Hamlet,  rehearsal,  85,  86 
Handy,  Lieut.,  aide  to  Moli- 

neux, II 
Hartshorne,  Col.  W.  Ross,  64, 

66,  67,  68,  115,  130 
Haslett,  Capt.,  Provost  Mar 
shal,  26,  37,  38 

Haurand,  Major  August,  22,  66 
Hayes,  Gen.  Joseph,  53,  61,  65, 

67,  92,  141 

Hayes,  Gen.,  on  court  martial, 

Appendix,  156 
health,  surely  failing,  123 
Henry,  Patrick,  cited,  30 
"Hide  your  greenbacks,"  41 
hole  in  the  brick  wall,  43 
Holland,  J.  H.,  imaginary,  128 
Homer,  quoted,  80;  puzzled  to 

death,  99 
Hooper,  Lieut.-Col.  C.  H.,  41, 

54,  loo,  115 

horse  lost  in  battle,  10,  1 1,  19 
hospital  in  Danville,  106,  132 
hostage,  Lt.  Manning  held  as, 

60 
Howard,  Confed.  Lieut.,  28,  29, 

30 
Howe,  Capt.  Wesley  C.,  22,  50, 

72,  109,  1 10,  141 


Imboden,  J.  D.,  Confed.  Gen., 

25 

Indiana  soldiers,  acrobats,  24 

innocent  deliberately  slain,  152 

international  war,  152 

Irish  Bend,  La.,  battle,  woun 
ded  in,  89 


James  river,  46,  137 
Jefferson,  Thomas,  quoted,  31 
Jersey  lightning,  applejack?  39 


i6o 


Index 


Johnson's  Island  prison,  126 
Jonah,  disgorged  like,  49 
Jordan,  H.  T.,  126,  127 

K 

Keifer,  Gen.  J.  W.,  9 
Kerrstown,  20 


Ladies,  Confed.,  kind  and 
handsome,  37 

Lee,  Gen.  Fitzhugh,  5;  woun 
ded,  13 

Legendre,  Davies's,  113,  140 
(note) 

letters  from  outside,  88,  89,  96, 
132 

Libby  prison,  40-44,  112,  144 

lice  in  prison,  102,  103,  132 

lice  of  Egypt,  not  "in  it,"  80 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  quoted,  47, 
48 

Lincoln  on  exchange  of  prison 
ers,  89,  90,  125 

Lincoln  on  right  of  revolution, 

47,  48 

Lloyd,  J.  J.,  returns  from  de 
sertion,  133 

Lockwood,  Capt.,  killed,  77 
log  houses  for  officers,  52,  53 
Longfellow,  quoted,  136 
Lovelace,  poet,  quoted,  89 

M 

Manning,  Lieut.  W.  C.,  tunnel, 

60,  61,  65 

Mark  Tapley's  "jolly"  ex 
ample,  38 

Marmion,  Scott's,  quoted,  37 
martyrs  in  reality,  133,  134, 136 
Mason,  Capt.   Frank  H.,  92, 

M3 

Masonic  Hall,  Winchester,  18 
Mclntosh's  cavalry,  4 
Meacham's  Station,  38,  40 
meat  ration,  44,  93,  94 
Mercutio's  wound,  118,  119 


Middletown     in     Shenandoah 

Valley,  20 

Molineux,  Col.  E.  L.,  7,  9,  14 
money  concealed,  42,  119,  138 
money,  Confederate,  23,  32, 33, 

34,  113,  140 
Morgan's  guerillas,  34 
Mortality  in  prison.    See  under 

"deaths" 
"Muggers,"  51 


X 


Napoleon,    his    strategy,     10; 

quoted,  135 

nationality,  northern,  149,  150 
nationality,  southern,  39,  150, 

151. 
necessity,  military,  defies  every 

law,  151 

negroes,  loyal  and  kind,  in 
negroes,  prisoners  of  war,  78, 

129 

New  Market,  Va.,  26,  27,  28 
Newtown,  V.,  20 
Nineteenth  Corps,  4,  5,  6,   10, 

66,  67 


occupations,  83,  84,  85,  91,  92; 

97-105 
O'Neil,   Col.,   Yale  classmate, 

killed,  64,  130 
Opequan  battle,  3-15 
Opequan  Creek,  3,  7 
order  to  retreat,  n 
Ould,    R.,    Confed.    Agt.    for 

exchange,  151 
ovens  for  baking,  1 10 
overcoat  saved,  19,  20,  42,  46, 

105,  108,  109 


"painfully  sober,"  85 
parole  given,  53,  129 
parole  rejected,  53 
pcculida.  vestimenti,  non  capitis, 
99,  100 


Index 


161 


Petersburg  shelled,  45 

Pharaoh's  epidermis  and  ob 
stinacy,  80 

Pickett's  charge  at  Gettys 
burg,  10 

plots  to  break  out,  61-75;  113- 
119 

policing  prison,  87,  100 

prayer  of  chaplain  Emerson, 
58,80 

prey  and  pray,  121 

Prey,  Col.  Gilbert  G.f  54,  115, 
130- 

prison  number  3,  officers',  78,  + 

prison  6,  the  worst  of  all,  131, 
132 

prison  rules  adopted,  87,  88 

profanity  of  soldiers,  14,  15, 
39,87 

Putnam,  Adjt.  G.  Haven,  91, 

92,   101,  IIO,  121,  140,   142 


Q 


questions,    amusing    or    ugly, 
104,  105,  141 


Ralston,  Col.,  killed,  61,  64, 

66,  114,  118 
Ramseur,  S.  D.,  Confed.  Gen., 

13,  15 

rations,  44,  49,  56,  93,  94,  100, 
102,  107,  124,  139 

recapture  of  escaped  officers, 

112 

recount  made  futile  by  trick, 

III,   112 

Redwood  of  Mobile,  Yale  class 
mate,  38 

Reed,  "shot  into  inch  pieces," 
24,  25,  26,  31 

retaliation  threatened,  60 ;  done, 
148 

rheumatism,  123,  142 

Richardson,  Albert  D.,  of 
Tribune,  52 

Richmond,  arrival  at,  40,  136 


Richmond,    watching    explod 
ing  shells,  45 

Rickett's  Division,  5,  6,  7,  9,  12 
riddle,  fatal  to  the  old  poet,  99 
riots  in  July,  1863,  133,  149 
robbery  of  captives,  15,  22,  46 
Rodes,    Confed.    General,    5; 

killed,  10,  13 

roll-call  nullified,  in,  112 
roll-call  sergt.,  queer,  99-103, 

III,  112 

rope  ladder,  twisted  rags,  1 1 1 , 

112 
rules  adopted  in  prison,  87,  88, 

Hi,  153 

Russell,  Sergt.  Alfred,  89 
Russell,  Gen.  D.  A.,  killed,  13 
Russell,  Martha,  89 
Russell,  Gen.  W.  H.,  128 


Sadler,  Major  David,  66 
Salisbury    prison,    50-55;    61, 

130,  133,  134.  136 
sandwiches,  G.  W.  Swepson's, 

49 

sanitary  measures,  79,  80,  103, 

141,142 

Sargent,  Lieut,  of  I4th  N.H.,  23 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  quoted,  8, 

37,  134,  135 

scurvy  prevalent,  123,  142 
searching  of  prisoners,  41,  42, 

119 
seceded  states,  a  real  nation? 

150,  151 

sentries'  sing-song  call,  44 
sermons  in  prison,  57,  58,  121, 

122 

"Set  the  table  for  dinner,"  96 
Shakespeare,  quoted,  36,  118, 

119 

Shakespeare's  Hamlet,  85,  140 
shelter,   lack  of  at  Salisbury, 

53,  55,  136  . 

Shenandoah  river  and  valley, 

I,  2, 

Sheridan's  devastation,  I,  2,  3 


1 62 


Index 


misnomer. 


Sherman,  Gen.  W.T.,  quoted,  I 
"shot  twice  into  inch  pieces," 

24 
Simpson,  Lieut.  J.  B.;  his  sly 

trick,  77 
singing  at  evening  at  Danville, 

104,  141 

Sixth  Corps,  4,  5,  6,  10,  13 
"skirmishing"     a     misnon 

102,   IO3 

slavery  doomed  in  any  event, 

149 

"Slim  Jim,"  101 
Small,  Major  Adner  A.,  142 
Smith,     Robert     C.,     Confed. 

commandant,  81,  82 
Smith,   Col.   Robert  C.,   Yale 

man,  kind,  82,   + 
Smith,  Sergt.  W.  P.,  clerk,  129 
"snack?"  or  snake?  49 
sorghum  syrup  issued,  94 
soup,  so  called  (or  broth),  44, 

94,  102 

spittoon  mystery,  solved?  78 
spoon,    carving    of,    83,     141 

(note) 

"spoon  fashion,"  lying  in,  105 
"  Spoon" !   significance  of,    105 
Sprague,    Bvt.    Col.    H.    B., 

passim,  and  143  (note) 
stampede,     Yankee,     II,     12; 

Confederate,  18,  23 
Stanton,  E.  M.,  War  Secretary, 

147,  148 

State,  allegiance  to,  39 
Staunton,  Va.,  march  to,  2,  28 
Staunton,   arrival   and   break 
fast  at,  32,  33 
Staunton,     Morgan's    guerilla 

kind  at,  33,  34 
stealing  rations  from    guards, 

haversacks,  77 
Stephens,  Hon.  Alexander  H., 

146,  147 
"Storming  Column"  at   Port 

Hudson,  7 
"Stove  Brigade,"  at  Danville, 

79 
stoves   in   prison  at    Danville, 

79,95 


Strasburg,  Va.,  20 
Strickland,  undertaker,  129 
Stuart,  Dr.  Moses,  on  slavery, 

29 
subjugation   policy,   Lincoln's, 

I5i 

sunrise  on  the  Blue  Ridge,  36 
sutler.  Confederate,  84 
swearing,  copious,  of  two  kinds, 

14,  15,  39 

sweeping  the  floors,  87,  100 
Swepson,     George    W.,     very 
kind,  49,  50 


table-knife  saw,  Lieut.  Titus's, 
97,  in 

Tarbell,  Capt.  Doctor,  assist 
ant  commissary,  54,  100 

Taylor,  Bayard,  quoted,  80 

tertium  quid,  solution  of  mys 
tery,  78 

theatrical  collapse  at  Danville, 
85,  86 

Thirteenth  Conn.  Regt.,  very 
patriotic,  7 

Tiemann,  Capt.  W.  P.,  14,  15, 
85,  109,  143 

Titus,  Lieut.  L.  B.,  invents  use 
ful  saw,  97,  in 

tobacco  and  the  spittoon  mys 
tery,  78 

tobacco  given  us  by  kind  cler 
gyman,  122 

Tom's  Brook,  20,  22,  23 

tooth-brush,  second-hand,  $300 
offered,  140 

Torbert,  Gen.  Alfred  T.,  3,  4, 
5,.6,  17 

trading  with  Confed.  sentinels, 
54.  120 

tunnel  through  the  Blue  Ridge, 

35,  3.6 
tunneling  at  Salisbury,  60,  61 ; 

Danville,  109,  no 
Turner,    Nathaniel,   inspector, 

Libby,  41 
Turner,  Richard,  commandant 

at  Libby,  41,  45 


Index 


163 


u 


unguentum,  two  pounds  called 

for,  8 1 
university   students  in   prison 

at  Danville,  140 


Vander  Weyde,  Lieut.  Henry, 

artist,  101,  117 
vermin  at  Danville,  80,  81,  87, 

131,  132 

view-point,  all-important,  57 
votes  in  prison  for  President, 
Nov.  8,  90 

W 

war,  Admiral  Fisher  on  its  es 
sence,  57 

war,  Lieut.  Gen.  S.  B.  M. 
Young,  quoted  on,  57 

war,  Gen.  Wm.  T.  Sherman's 
"War  is  hell,"  I 

Washington,  George,  Com 
mander-in-chief,  73,  148 

Washington,  Lieutenant,  a 
Confederate,  83 

Washington,  President,  a 
Mason  at  Winchester,  18 


Washington     wished     slavery 

somehow  ended,  30 
water  parties  under  guard,  98, 

no 
water  scarce  en  route,  20;   at 

Salisbury,  56,  65,  75 
Watts,  Isaac,  quoted,  45 
Waynesboro,  Va.,  34,  35 
Webster,  Daniel,  29 
Wesley,  John,  quoted,  152 
West  Virginia,  Army  of,  4,  5 
"Where  is  he  at?"  73 
Whittier,  John  G.,  quoted,  152 
Wilson,  Cav.  Gen.  J.  H.,  4 
Winchester,  Va.,  battle  of,  3-15 
Winder,  Cpnfed.  Gen.  J.   H.f 

Supt.  Prisons,  112 
wood,  split  without  edge-tools, 

97,  107 
Woolsey,  T.  D.,  President  of 

Yale,  128 


Yadkin  river  crossing,  72,  75 
Yale  College  men,  38,  49,  64, 

69,  82 
Yankee    ingenuity    and    skill, 

83,  84,  97 

Y.  M.  C.  A.,  of  Richmond,  121 
Young,  Lieut.-Gen.  S.  B.  M., 

on  war,  57 


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